The High Court on Monday ordered the authorities concerned to demolish all illegal brick kilns in five districts including Dhaka within next two weeks to reduce air pollution.

An HC bench of Justice KM Kamrul Kader and Justice Muhammad Ali passed the order after hearing a petition in this regard.

The court ordered the Director General of Department of Environment (DoE) to submit a report after evicting all the illegal brick kilns in Dhaka, Munshiganj, Narayanganj, Manikganj and Gazipur within the timeframe.

Expressing resentment to all government departments concerned over their failure to reduce the air pollution of the Dhaka, the court asked, “Why has the capital been ranking  in the top or near the top in the list of the most polluted cities of the world for the past few days if effective measures were taken as per our directives?” 

“We are not satisfied with your steps taken abiding by our directives,” the HC said.

The court said water is not sufficiently sprayed to reduce the air pollution along with the nuisance of the dengue mosquito.

The HC also asked the city corporations to take care of the problems.

Counsel Amatul Karim stood for the DoE; senior lawyer Manzil Morshed represented the writ petitioner while Deputy Attorney General Abdullah Al Mahmud Bashar stood for the state.

Earlier in 2020, the HC gave a nine-point directive to address the air pollution. The directives are given below.

1.    The trucks carrying sand and earth operate by covering with protection in the capital.

2.    Contractors will have to cover the construction sites where works are on.

3.    Steps will have to be taken to spray water in the areas where water is not spayed properly.

4.    Apply the rules and regulations, terms and conditions in the areas where mega projects by             roads and carpeting works are going on.

5.    Seize the vehicles which emit black smoke.

6.    Fix the economic life of the vehicles plying on the roads and impose embargo on the obsoleted ones as per the Road Transport Act-2018.

7.    Submit report after demolishing the brick kilns which are running without licenses.

8.    Stop burning tyres and recycling batteries without permission from the DoE.

9.    The city corporations will have to remove the garbage from markets and shops after closing those.

Read more: Around 60 percent brick kilns are operating illegally: Minister

The lawyer Manzil Morshed filed a petition seeking directives to implement the nine-point order on January 30, this year.

On January 31, the HC wanted to know about what measures taken by the authorities concerned to reduce the air pollution.

Later, the DoE submitted its report on February 26 following the HC order. The court later gave two weeks to the DoE to execute the directives.