Seven vehicles, six brick kilns fined for polluting air

Smokes belch out of brick kiln chimneys at Shyamlasi, Keraniganj, on the outskirts of Dhaka on 3 January 2019. According to the environment department of Bangladesh 58 per cent air pollution of the capital are caused by brick kilnsFile photo

The Department of Environment on Sunday fined seven vehicles and six brick kilns a total of Tk 2.02 million in a mobile court drive for polluting the air in Dhaka and two other districts, reports UNB.

The drives led by the DoE’s Monitoring and Enforcement Wing, were conducted in Dhaka’s Motijheel, Munshiganj and Chandpur as part of a campaign against environmental pollution, a media release from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change states. The press release was signed by the ministry’s public relations officer Dipankar Bar.

A total of Tk 2 million has been collected from six illegal brick kilns in Munshiganj's Gazaria upazila and Chandpur's Matlab Uttar upazila.

Meanwhile, Tk 21,500 was collected in fines from seven vehicles for polluting the air by releasing black smoke (carbon monoxide) into the air in the capital's Motijheel area.

The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, with the aim to strengthen the environmental conservation campaign, including control of air pollution and noise pollution, initiated a month-long mobile court drive on 5 April.

The anti-air pollution drive conducted by the monitoring and enforcement wing of the DoE’s will continue, it added.