CHITTAGONG ENVIRONMENT COURT Pollution unchecked as cases pile up
River pollution, canal encroachment and hill cutting in the port city of Chittagong go unabated as a large number of cases remain pending with the environment court.
Environmentalists have blamed lack of government’s seriousness on the failure of the court and the authorities concerned to protect the environment.
Pitch dark and stinking water of the River Karnaphuli, razed hills and waste dumping in the canals still remain the main the environmental concerns in the port city.
But the environment court, established in 2002, is failing to dispose of the cases filed with complaints of pollution by industries, mills and factories, river pollution and hill cutting.
As the court needs investigation report to proceed, which is supposed to be provided by the Department of Environment inspectors, it takes huge time, officials have said.
According to Chittagong Environment Court officials, in the past 15 years, a total of 422 cases were filed. Of them, 82 were disposed of while 340 remain pending.
Advocate Saiful Islam, special public prosecutor of the court, said, ‘Most of the cases are pending as the DoE fails to submit the investigation report in time.’
‘Despite repeated reminders from the court, the DoE inspectors failed to submit investigation reports. The DoE cooperation is essential, otherwise the number of pending cases will keep on increasing,’ said the Special PP.
Green activists and secretary general of Bangladesh Poribesh Andolan Abdul Matin said, ‘The government has completely failed to make the court people-friendly. Moreover, people are not aware of this court.’
He pointed out that the accused in the cases get off easily as in most cases the investigation is done by inexperienced officials.
The compensation under the current act has a ceiling of Tk 10 lakh for offenses leading to environmental degradation, which he thinks inappropriate.
The environment court cannot perform properly under the current law because it stipulates that only the DoE may act as the plaintiff.
The court only can handle cases mentioned in the Bangladesh Environment Conservation Act which is not adequate to protect the environment, Matin says.
Department of Environment director (Chittagong) Md Masud Karim told New Age that for acute manpower crisis they cannot submit investigation reports in time and the assigned officers are to do multiple tasks for which sometimes they cannot complete investigation.
Masud Karim informed that there were two posts for investigation officer for the Chittagong district. Of which, only one is filled and the other is vacant.
As per the DoE organogram, among 37 posts, 24 are vacant.
Even the executive magistrate’s post, which is the most important one to run drives against pollution and encroachment, is also vacant.
Vesting power on an assistant director, now the DoE is running their drives which make the task difficult, said the director.
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