Own Correspondent: From 25 to 30 brick kilns have been built illegally in the protected hills of Kanchannagar in Chandnaish, Chittagong. Most of these brickyards are not valid. Recently, in view of the hearing conducted by the Bangladesh Human Rights Foundation’s human rights information research team and the reports aired on national media and various televisions, the upazila administration started the operation in collaboration with the Environment Directorate Chittagong on Sunday morning.
Meanwhile, the mobile court led by Upazila Assistant Commissioner (Land) Zimran Muhammad Sayeed fined two brick kilns, including SAB owned by local chairman Rokon, a total of two lakh rupees.
However, in the government circular issued to the District Commissioners on March 1, the more harmful illegal brick kilns were ordered to be closed on a priority basis. Advocate Elina Khan, Chairperson of the Environment and Human Rights Organization Bangladesh Human Rights Foundation BHRF, Advocate Elina Khan, and Secretary General Advocate Zia Habib Ahsan felt that the local administration is giving a kind of legitimacy to the illegal brick kilns that are destroying the mountain environment through fines.
In a statement, they likened the environment-destroying brick kilns to KIWASH and criminals, and the administration’s cat-and-mouse game of fining only the name of Guria as per the orders of the Hon’ble High Court.
