A Parliamentary panel has recommended the highest fine to be imposed on Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) for environment pollution through the Aminbazar waste dumping station.
The environment ministry has said it will take steps following the Standing Committee on Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change recommendation on Saturday (Sept 14), said Saber Hossain Chowdhury who heads the committee.
The Aminbazar waste dumping landfill has been operating without any environment clearance and a meeting was also held on Apr 4 in this regard.
“The waste dumping station at Aminbazar is completely illegal,” he said and added that DNCC asked for more time when they were served with a letter to shut it down.
“In today’s meeting we decided to impose a fine on them and the ministry agrees,” he added.
The Dhaka-9 lawmaker said that there is provision for fines in the law in case of environment pollution and DNCC is not above the law.
According to the meeting information, DNCC took area clearance in the beginning of the construction of the dumping station back when the city corporations were undivided.
They, however, didn’t have any clearance from the environment ministry as they didn’t submit the ‘Environmental Impact Assessment’ report based on which the clearance is given.
The Aminbazar waste landfill was built on 50 acres of land in the 2005-06 fiscal year but currently work is being carried out over 75 acres.
DNCC began waste treatment there since 2007 and is still continuing doing so although the plant expired in 2017.
Everyday nearly 3,000 tonne of waste is treated there and despite the expiry date the management capacity hasn’t been increased yet.
DNCC was served with three notices but they didn’t shut it down. The ministry said that Mayor Atiqul Islam was also contacted in this regard.
Not only that, DNCC reportedly asked the environment department to prepare an ‘environment management plant’ but their request was met with flat refusal. The department, however, agreed to guide them in the matter.
