HC asks KCC to submit feasibility, EIA reports by Aug 10

The High Court (HC) yesterday asked Khulna City Corporation (KCC) authorities to submit the feasibility and the environmental impact assessment (EIA) reports on Phultala Water Supply Project in Khulna before this court by August 10.
The HC bench of Justice ABM Khairul Haque and Justice Mohammad Momtazuddin Ahmed verbally passed the order following an application filed by Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers' Association (BELA).
The application stated that the KCC authorities have been working on the water supply project at Phultala in Khulna without having any feasibility and EIA reports.
KCC's lawyer Advocate Kamrul Haque Siddiqui, however, yesterday told the court that the KCC authorities will not work on the project until further order on the case.
Earlier on July 7, the HC asked the KCC authorities to obtain the EIA report from the department of environment (DoE) on the project as early as possible and to inform about the EIA report to it (court) within a month.
The court had also fixed August 10 for hearing the petition.
Earlier, on May 25 this year, the HC upon a writ petition filed by BELA issued a rule upon the authorities concerned to explain why the water supply project without having EIA report and environmental certificate should not be declared illegal.
Advocate Iqbal Kabir Litan argued for BELA, while Deputy Attorney General Mostafa Zaman Islam stood for the government yesterday.