Seeks 5 years’ jail for or fine of 5 lakh taka for polluting environment
The government on Monday placed the Environment Court Bill 2010 in the Parliament, seeking provisions for allowing citizens to file cases against polluters and for setting up at least one environment court in each district.
The government has also placed the Climate Change Trust Bill 2010, the International Mother Language Institute Bill 2010 and the Border Guard Bangladesh Bill 2010 in the House.
The Environment Court Bill stipulates a maximum punishment of five years of imprisonment or Tk 5 lakh in fine or both for people guilty of polluting the environment.
The state minister for environment and forest, Hasan Mahmud, placed the Bill in the House against the backdrop of widespread pollution of air and water across the country.
The Bill proposed an amendment to the Section making provisions for establishment of an environment court in each district headquarters.
The Bill also proposed a provision for allowing any aggrieved person to sue a polluter and demand compensation.
The new bill proposed another provision to empower the director general of the Department of Environment to dispose of any case, even if it was pending with an environment court, through mediation between the plaintiff and the accused.
The Cabinet on July 19 approved the draft Bill seeking amendments to the Environment Court Act 2000.
According to the existing Environment Court Act 2000, an aggrieved person has to apply to the Department of Environment to seeking redress for pollution, and no court can take cognisance of any offence of pollution without a report submitted by an inspector in writing. It stipulates provisions for setting up environment courts in the divisional headquarters with joint district judges. Only four courts have so far been established in Dhaka, Chittagong, Khulna and Sylhet.
Hasan Mahmud also placed the Climate Change Trust Bill 2010, seeking provisions to establish and operate the Climate Change Trust Fund for devising and implementing plans to enable the people living in vulnerable areas to adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change by providing funds and development of the necessary technology.
Bangladesh created the Climate Change Trust Fund to take measures to tackle the adverse impacts of climate change on the lives and livelihood of its people and properties. The government allocated a total fund of Tk 1,400 crore, Tk 700 crore in FY 2009-10 and Tk 700 crore in FY 2010-11, to the fund.
The education minister, Nurul Islam Nahid, placed the International Mother Language Institute Bill 2010, seeking provisions for establishing the International Mother Language Institute in Dhaka.
The home minister, Sahara Khatun, placed the Border Guard Bangladesh Bill 2010, seeking permission to change the name of the paramilitary Bangladesh Rifles and raise the maximum punishment for mutiny or disobedience to the death penalty for the soldiers of the disciplined force.
