10 govt officials face contempt
HC issues rule against the officials, a UP chairman for not removing illegal structures from St Martin's Island
The High Court yesterday issued a contempt rule against 10 government officials, including four secretaries, and a union parishad chairman for not complying with its 2011 order to demolish unauthorised structures on St Martin's Island in Cox's Bazar.
The 10 officials are: secretaries to the ministries of environment and forests, civil aviation and tourism, fisheries and livestock and shipping, chairman of Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation, director general of the Department of Environment (DoE), director of DoE of Chittagong, deputy commissioner and superintendent of police of Chittagong and chief executive officer of Chittagong District Council.
The rest is chairman of St Martin's union parishad.
In the contempt rule, the court asked the officials to show cause as to why contempt of court proceedings should not be brought against them and they should not be ordered to appear before it to explain their roles for not complying with its 2011 directive to knock down the buildings erected in the ecologically critical area of St Martin's Island without environmental clearance certificate.
The HC bench of Justice Md Ashfaqul Islam and Justice Ashish Ranjan Das came up with the rule following a contempt of court petition filed by Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (Bela).
Citing the petition, Sayeed Ahmed Kabir, a lawyer of Bela, told The Daily Star that the HC on October 24, 2011, had directed the respondents to pull down the buildings on the island, which have no environmental clearance certificates, within 60 days after receiving the court order to protect the island's natural diversity.
Till October 2011, 74 unauthorised structures had been constructed on St Martin's Island, which was declared an ecologically critical area in 1999, he said.
Following an application filed by Bela under the Right to Information Act, the Chittagong office of the Department of Environment informed Bela on February 2 this year that 106 unauthorised structures, including hotels and motels, have so far been built there without having any environmental clearance certificate, the lawyer added.
Bela recently filed the contempt of court petition against the respondents for not demolishing and preventing construction of such buildings on St Martin's Island as per the HC directive.