4 Khulna jute mills use firewood defying ban

Huge logs, ready for burning at the boiler of People's Jute Mills at Khalishpur in Khulna, are kept on its compound, bearing testimony to the state-owned mill authorities' callousness about protecting the environment and ecology.Photo: STAR

Four state-owned jute mills in Khulna industrial belt are using firewood in boilers instead of coal and furnace oil, defying a government ban.
Theye are Crescent Jute Mills, Khalishpur Jute Mills, Platinum Jubilee Jute Mills and Star Jute Mills.
The mills are using several hundred maunds of firewood in their boilers everyday as an alternative to coal and furnace oil.
Price hike of coal and furnace oil are compelling us to look for alternative sources to save huge production cost, said project director Jahangir Hossain of Star Jute Mills.
Use of firewood could be avoided had there been steady supply of gas, said Alamgir Molla, project director of Khalishpur Jute Mills.
The state-owned jute mills cannot afford to buy furnace oil and coal at exorbitant prices, raising cost of production and creating adverse impact on business, he added.
Furnace oil, coal and rejected jute were used in the past to keep boilers operative, Alamgir Molla admitted.
Logs of wood brought everyday from different places by trucks are found stocked in and outside the boiler houses of the jute mills.
Tarun Kanti Shikder, director of the Department of Environment (DOE) in Khulna, said he has already started a probe into the matter. No one has the right to pollute environment by burning firewood, the DOE official added.
Advocate Firoz Ahmed of Bangladesh Environment Lawyers' Association alleged trees are being felled to provide firewood for the boilers of the four jute mills.