The Environment Ministry and the parliamentary watchdog on the ministry yesterday agreed that the environment courts could not be effective because of conflicting laws.
The environment act and the environment court act conflicted each other on the question of the authority to file cases on charges of damaging environment.
The Forest Conservation Act 1995 permits any aggrieved person to file cases against environmental damages while the Environment Court Act 2010 authorises the Department of Environment to file lawsuits, Hasan Mahmud, chairman of the parliamentary watchdog, told the Dhaka Tribune after a meeting at the parliament building.
“So, we have recommended making the two laws uniform. The aggrieved persons should be allowed to file lawsuits for environmental damages,” he said.
The 10-member Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Environment and Forest Ministry also discussed the implementation of the brick kiln regulation act that came into effect on July 1. The law strictly prohibits the operation of traditional brick kilns with polluting chimneys.
According to a report of the department of environment, around 40% of the 10,000 kilns have been turned into environment-friendly zigzag chimneys that reduced pollution drastically.
The brick kiln owners do not want to invest more money for installing zigzag chimneys.
“Our recommendation is that there is no scope for giving further concession to the brick kiln owners. The Department of Environment will send letters to all deputy commissioners asking them to execute the act.
