HC fines ship breaker for environment pollution

High Court (HC) has fined owner of ship breaking company Madina Enterprise Joynal Abedin Tk one lakh for continuing toxic ship breaking ignoring the court's order. The court ordered him to pay the amount to Chittagong's Deputy Commissioner within the next two weeks, in default, he would be put to prison for seven days. A HC bench comprising justice Iman Ali and justice Ashraful Islam on Saturday passed the order after hearing on a writ petition filed by Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers' Association (BELA), an NGO, challenging the importing MT Enterprise ship, which is black listed by the Greenpeace.
The petitioner BELA said that the company started ship breaking without taking environmental clearance certificate for the appropriate authority, which was a clear violation of the Bangladesh Environment Conservation Act, 1995 and the Environment Conservation Rules, 1997.
BELA said the company imported banned MT enterprise ship, which pollutes the environment, ignoring the government rules.
Earlier, the HC bench listened to three experts as to the negative impact of ship breaking on environment.
Meanwhile in another matter on February 10, BELA served a legal notice on the secretaries of industry, environment and forest, land and shipping ministries, and chief forest conservator and other relevant departments against construction of ship breaking yard at Sonaichori in Sitakunda upazila destructing the costal forest.