Editorial
No ETP in two years?
Such slow progress is inexcusable
The government has sought two more years from the High Court to set up an Effluents Treatment Plant (ETP) in Savar and relocate tanneries from the city's Hazaribagh area. The appeal is as inexplicable as it is worrying. It is inexplicable because two years have already elapsed since the High Court issued its directives on the ETP in June 2009 and in all this period the authorities have done nothing but seek an extension of time for the work to be completed. It is worrying because, as the authorities point out, there is no shortage of funds for the work and yet things have not been moving. One thus has a fine instance here of shoddy bureaucracy impeding a move aimed at ensuring public safety in the capital.
The fact that nothing has been done about the ETP in these past two years reflects the callousness and incompetence of the authorities. The project director entrusted with the task of overseeing the setting up of the ETP has informed us that the authorities are doing their 'level best' to implement the court's directives. Nothing could be more misleading. If this inaction is a hint of the 'level best' being done about putting an end to industrial pollution in the city, it is clear that those responsible for the job must be pulled up and made to explain why they have sat on the HC orders all these two years.
One can easily imagine the hazards to which public health has been further exposed during this time. Instances of various skin diseases, asthma, fever, diabetes and the like are all too frequent. Despite all the outcry against any further pollution of the river Buriganga, indeed insistent demands for a cleaning up process for the river to begin, the stagnation has continued. All that the government has done is come up with excuses of a repetitive and scandalous nature. It certainly feels no embarrassment at having failed to do its job and has asked for more time.
Such incompetence and inaction only damage the image of government. Citizens, convinced that the authorities are unable to fulfil the tasks, increasingly lose faith in their political and administrative leadership. The ETP issue demands stern, exemplary action against those who have failed to deliver.
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