<i>School runs with doors, windows closed</i>
Stinky smoke, dust blow in from brick field 30 feet away
Children attending class in a room with its window permanently closed to ward off reeking smoke from the adjoining brickfield. Photo: STAR
The school runs with all doors and windows closed. Inside classrooms, children often cough as they feel suffocated due to smoke and stink coming from an adjoining brickfield. The brickfield is only about 30 feet from Samannopur Primary School in Santhia upazila in the district. “Heavy smoke billowing from the brick field at times blurs visibility on the (school) compound”, its headmaster Md. Nazimuddin said while talking to this correspondent during a visit this week. “We take classes shutting doors and windows”, he said. The Mollah Brick Field owned by Md. Siddik Ali was set up in 2004. A road divides the school compound and the brick field. The primary school is in Santhia upazila and the brick field is in adjoining Sujanager upazila. “Some of the children often suffer from allergy. Often the air is stinky as soyabean waste is burnt in the brick field as fuel. Dust also causes sufferings,” the headmaster said. “We also informed the upazila administration but nothing has been done” the headmaster said. Contact, Santhia Uupazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Akbar Ali said, “I sent a report to the district administration suggesting steps for the sake of student.” But brick field owner Siddik Ali said, “I got permission from the authorities through legal ways”, he said.
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