Certificates to Ship Breakers
DoE, Shipping dept served notices
Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (Bela) yesterday served a legal notice on top officials of the environment department of (DoE) and shipping department for issuing clearance certificates to various ship breakers violating court directions.
The notice was served on the director generals (DGs) of Department of Environment and Department of Shipping and the director of DoE Chittagong division.
The Supreme Court in March 2009 made it mandatory for ship breakers to obtain pre-cleaning (decontamination) certificate and environmental clearance prior to bringing scrap ships into Bangladesh territory, read a press release of Bela.
But the DoE in October last issued conditional environmental certificates to 16 ship breaking yards, which was later brought to the attention of the SC. Though the court then made it clear that there was no scope for issuing such conditional certificates, DoE went ahead with giving clearances in favour of the 16.
This January, the DoE decided to issue 44 more conditional clearance certificates defying the court order. Meanwhile, the shipping department issued “no objection” to the import of 26 scrap ships without any pre-cleaning and environmental certificate, which is an act of contempt of court, said the Bela press release.
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