The High Court yesterday issued a rule upon the government seeking explanation why the plan to establish a 1320MW coal-based power plant at Matarbari of Moheshkhali, Cox’s Bazar should not be scrapped.
It also wanted to know why the plant should not be declared contrary to the constitution.
The bench of Justice Mirza Hussain Haider and Justice Khurshid Alam Sarkar passed the order after a preliminary hearing on a writ petition jointly lodged by three citizens of Moheshkhali area.
The power, energy and mineral resources secretary, the environment and forests secretary, the land secretary, the director general of the Department of Environment (DoE), the PDB chairman, the managing director and the secretary of Coal Power Generation Company Bangladesh Limited, and four others were asked to reply to the rule by two weeks.
Supreme Court lawyer Shaikh Mohammad Zakir Hossain, assisted by Mirza Al Mahmud and JR Khan Robbin, contended for the petitioners – Mohammad Rafiqul Islam, Abul Hashem and Altaf Hossain – who filed the plea on October 6.
Zakir told the court that the plant would be detrimental to the biodiversity of the area and very harmful for the people.
But Deputy Attorney General Al-Amin Sarker said the DoE had given clearance certificate for the plant as it would not affect the environment rather would help in adding more electricity to the national grid.
Earlier, the DoE gave location clearance for a 1320MW coal-fired power plant at Rampal of Bagerhat, on the bank of Pashur River and within 15 kilometres of the Sundarbans mangrove forest claiming that the environment would not be harmed, a proposition opposed by the conservationists.
Several petitions filed over the Rampal plant were filed with the High Court but were later rejected. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the plant’s construction work in October last year which will be built and operated by Indian state power agency.
