Demolish illegal brick kilns in Dhaka, adjacent districts in 15 days: HC
The court directed the DCs of five districts to comply with the order
The High Court (HC) on Tuesday asked the authorities concerned to demolish all illegal brick kilns in Dhaka and four adjoining districts – Manikganj, Munshiganj, Narsingdi, and Narayanganj – within 15 days.
After the hearing on a petition, the HC bench of Justice Md Ashfaqul Islam and Justice Md Iqbal Kabir directed the deputy commissioners (DCs) of these five districts to comply with the order and to submit compliance reports.
Following the direction of the court, on 16 February, the Department of Environment (DoE) submitted a list of illegal brickfields in the five districts.
There are 319 illegal brickfields in the five districts, and 95 of them were shut down last year by DoE mobile courts, the DoE report says.
Earlier in 2019, the HC gave a nine-point directive to handle air pollution which was not properly implemented and made the pollution worse.
So in early February, lawyer Manzil Morshed filed a supplementary petition to the HC, seeking a four-point directive to better handle pollution.
After hearing the plea filed by Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh (HRPB), the HC sought a list of brick kilns located in Dhaka and its surrounding districts following concerns about air pollution levels in Dhaka and the local administration's failure to tackle the situation.
It also asked deputy commissioners (DC) of the districts concerned to submit compliance reports.
