HC asks list of illegal brick kilns in Dhaka, dists around

Court Correspondent
The High Court on Tuesday directed the government to submit a list of illegal brick kilns in Dhaka and four adjacent districts.
The virtual HC bench of Justice Md Ashfaqul Islam and Justice Iqbal Kabir passed the order after hear-ing a writ petition filed by Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh (HRPB).
The four other districts are Gazipur, Munshiganj, Narayanganj and Manikganj.
The Deputy Commissioners (DCs) of these five districts were asked to submit the lists connecting virtu-ally on February 15.
Lawyer Manzil Murshid appeared for the petitioner while Lawyer Amatul Karim appeared for the De-partment of Environment. Besides, Saeed Ahmed Raja appeared for Dhaka North City Corporation and Muniruzzaman for the Fire Service and Civil Defence.
HRPB filed the writ including a report on air pollution in Dhaka published in a daily on January 21, 2019. The court then ordered the hearing of the writ on January 28 of the same year.
HRPB also pleaded for directives to take necessary steps to prevent air pollution in the capital.
Earlier, on February 4 last year, the High Court had directed the Director General of Fire Service and Civil Defence to take necessary steps to spray water at various points including Gabtali, Jatrabari, Pur-bachal, Keraniganj and Tongi at the entrance of Dhaka city to prevent air pollution.
However, on Monday, Muniruzzaman, the lawyer of the fire service, said that spraying water as per the court order is being made besides regular work of the fire service. “But we do not have a spraying ma-chine. We just spray water with pipes.”
On Monday, the High Court directed to shut down all the brick kilns operating without any license across Dinajpur and Moulvibazar district within seven days.
On January 25, HC ordered the authorities concerned to take steps to close down all unauthorised brick kilns in three hill districts (Khagrachhari, Bandarban and Rangamati) within seven days.