High Court warns Wasa MD for not implementing verdict to save Buriganga from pollution
The court said Taqsem A Khan was not complying with the verdict intentionally and was wasting time
The High Court has warned Taqsem A Khan, managing director of the Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (Wasa), for not implementing a verdict, which was delivered nine years ago, to stop the pollution of the River Buriganga, a lifeline of the capital city.
The court Monday said the Wasa managing director was not complying with the verdict intentionally and was wasting time.
It said a judgment or directive of the High Court should not be taken lightly.
Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel
At the same time, the court directed Taqsem to inform it within a month about the progress of implementation of the verdict.
Meanwhile, the High Court ordered removal of piles of garbage from the river and the riverbanks on the south side of the Buriganga within the next two weeks and to stop dumping of waste and garbage.
The Department of Environment, the deputy commissioner and the superintendent of police in Dhaka, and the upazila nirbahi officer and officer-in-charge in Keraniganj were asked to implement the order and submit a progress report to the court by September 30.
A virtual high court bench comprising Justice Gobinda Chandra Tagore and Justice Mohammad Ullah passed the order in response to a writ petition filed by the environmental rights group Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh (HRPB).
Advocate Manzill Morshed was the counsel for the writ petitioner while Advocate Amatul Karim represented the Department of Environment and Advocate Umme Salma took part in the hearing on behalf of Dhaka Wasa.
In response to a writ petition by the HRPB, the High Court in 2011 ordered removal of all illegal structures from the banks of the River Buriganga.
In addition, it ordered to stop dumping all types of waste so that the river water was not polluted. But still some industrial establishments and Wasa are dumping liquid waste in the river through sewerage lines, which are polluting the river water.
HRPB brought the matter to the attention of the court. In view of this, Taqsem appeared in person in the High Court on March 4 and promised to implement the verdict.
Subsequently, Wasa submitted two reports on August 18 and September 7. But the court did not accept the reports and gave Wasa time to implement the verdict.
In this situation, the court expressed dissatisfaction with the report submitted by the Wasa managing director on Monday.
The court warned him and ordered execution of the verdict.
