The High Court has directed the concerned bodies of the government to destroy all the illegal brick kilns installed in the three districts of Chattogram Hill Tracts—Khagrachari, Bandarban, and Rangamati—within six weeks.
The High Court bench of Justice J B M Hassan and Justice Fatema Najib on Monday passed the order after hearing a petition filed by a rights organisation, Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh (HRPB) for necessary directives in this regard.
According to the reports submitted by the deputy commissioners, there are 130 illegal brick kilns in three hilly districts.
Complying with a HC order the deputy commissioners of the three districts submitted the reports in the court on February 23 this year where they stated that they have already shut down the activities of the 64 illegal brick kilns installed in 20 upazilas of the three hilly districts.
The court on that day asked the deputy commissioners to submit a complete list of the illegal brick kilns installed in the districts by March 9 accordingly the deputy commissioners submitted the list.
Lawyer Manzill Murshid appeared in the court on behalf of the writ petitioner, while deputy attorney general Tushar Kanti Roy represented the state.
Later Mr Manzill said, “The High Court has asked the respondents to take legal actions against the owners of the illegal brick kilns within three working days under section 14 and 19 of the Brick Manufacturing and Brick Kilns Establishment (Control) Act. It has also asked to destroy all illegal brick kilns installed in the three districts of Chattogram Hill Tracts within six weeks and to submit a report with it.”
Following a writ petition the same High Court bench on January 25 this year directed the government to shut down all the illegal brick kilns in three districts of Chattogram Hill Tracts within seven days.
The district administrators of the three districts, the department of environment, and other respondents were asked to comply with the order and to submit a compliance report in the court within two weeks.
The court also asked the deputy commissioners of the three districts and the director of the Environment Department of the Chattogram range to submit a list of the illegal brick kilns to the court within six weeks. Accordingly, the matter came to the cause-list for hearing.
Annexing some newspaper cutting the Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh (HRPB) filed the writ petition as public interest litigation.
During the hearing the lawyer said, “No brick Kilns cannot run without a license according to the Section 4 of the Brick Manufacturing and Brick Kilns Establishment (Control) Act, 2013. If anyone runs a kiln without any license he will be sentenced to two years in jail as per section 14 of the law. Despite the provisions of the law, the administration is not taking any effective action against all the illegal brick kilns in the three districts of Chittagong Hill Tracts.”
The lawyer also said the same law prohibits the use of soil of the hills in the brick kilns. Even then the administration is not taking any action against the persons who are using hills’ soil as raw material for brick kilns.
