Polluting Buriganga: HC fines 4 factories Tk 5 lakh each
The High Court yesterday fined four dyeing and textile factories in Shyampur area of Dhaka -- on the bank of river Buriganga -- Tk 5 lakh each for running those without effluent treatment plants (ETPs), polluting the river and suppressing information about it to the court.
The court ordered the owners of Mita Textiles, M/S Ovijat Dyeing, Chandpur Textiles and Dyeing, and Sharmim Textile and Dyeing to pay the fine to the Department of Environment (DoE) in 15 days, after receiving a copy of the verdict.
The DoE has been directed to use the money to free the Buriganga of pollution, Advocate Manzill Murshid, a lawyer for DoE, told The Daily Star.
He said the HC also declared valid the notices issued by the DoE asking the owners of the factories to stop their activities as they do not have ETPs.
The bench of Justice Gobinda Chandra Tagore and Justice Mohammad Ullah fined the factories as their owners have suppressed information about the Supreme Court’s restriction on running the factories and industries without having ETPs, while getting permission from another HC bench to operate them.
The four factories were dumping waste into the Buriganga and polluting it and the environment, he said, adding that the operation of the factories must be stopped following the HC verdict.
The HC bench led by Justice Gobinda delivered the verdict through rejecting four separate writ petitions filed by the factories, challenging legality of the notices issued by the DoE last year asking the owners to stop their activities.
Barrister Siddiqur Rahman Khan, a lawyer representing the factories, told The Daily Star that he did not get any instruction from his clients about moving any appeal before the Appellate Division of the SC, challenging the HC verdict.
Advocate Amatul Karim also appeared for the DoE while Advocate Anisur Rahman assisted Siddiqur Rahman Khan while hearing the petitions.
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