'Include environment clauses in constitution'
Right to a healthy and pollution free environment should be fundamentally included in the constitution said speakers at a discussion meeting yesterday.
They said provisions in the constitution should be written in a way so that the state is bound to protect the environment and at the same time citizens are provided the right to a safe environment.
The speakers said this at the discussion titled "Inclusion of environment issues in the constitution of Bangladesh" organised by Save Environment Movement at the National Press Club.
Speaking as chief guest Abdul Momin Talukder, chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on environment and forest ministry, said the parliamentary standing committee has finalised its report on environment act.
This act was placed in the parliament's last session.
The report will be placed on September 20 and after that the law will be passed, he said.
According to the act, industries are bound to set up effluent treatment plants. The maximum punishments for the law's violators are 10 years imprisonment and a fine of Tk 2 lakh, Momin said.
“The committee adjusted the extent of punishment in the law,” he said.
“The government should be sincere in freeing the rivers from pollution and encroachment. If the government did so then the High Court does not need to direct anything in this matter,” Momin said.
Chairman of Human Rights Commission Prof Mizanur Rahman said our prime minister (PM) is sincere about preventing environment pollution.
But the steps taken by the government in this regard cannot be implement as the people around our PM are not that much serious about it, he added.
Awami League lawmaker Saber Hossain Chowdhury said on behalf of the parliamentary standing committee, a proposal was submitted to the special committee to review the constitution about including the environment issue.
Presenting a keynote paper at the programme Abu Raihan M Khalid, a Supreme Court lawyer, urged the government to include the right of pollution free environment as one of the fundamental rights in the constitution.
Save Environment Movement Chairman Abu Naser Khan presided over the discussion.
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