National River Conservation Commission (NRCC) Chairman Dr Manjur A. Chowdhury said the Mayor of Dhaka North City Corporation and the managing director of Dhaka Wasa should be sent to jail through a mobile court for polluting the river repeatedly.
He said, “We want Wasa MD and Mayor of Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) to appear before the mobile court and we want them to be jailed for six months and also fined Tk 0.4 million”.
The chairman came up with the remarks at a discussion meeting on World River Day, organised by the NRCC at the CIRDAP auditorium on Sunday.
Chowdhury also said "People of Dhaka city produce 5.0 million kg of faeces and 1.5 billion liters of urine every day. It was Dhaka WASA's responsibility to treat them, but they ended up in the rivers through the drainage channels of the City Corporations".
On the other hand, citing the example of canal inspection in the DNCC, the NRCC chairman said the DNCC was asked to set a net at the mouths of those canals repeatedly so that the waste of the canal does not fall into the river.
The DNCC has not done that yet, he said.
Disciplinary action should be taken against Dhaka Wasa Managing Director Taqsem A Khan for his failure in sewage management in Dhaka city, according to Dr Manjur.
Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury, State Minister for Shipping, was present at the meeting as the chief guest while UN Resident Coordinator in Bangladesh, Ms Gwyn Lewis was the special guest.
Dr Ainun Nishat, Emeritus Professor, BRAC University, attended the event as the chief speaker.