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The High Court on Sunday issued a rule upon the director general of the Department of Shipping and its chemist to explain why they should not be punished for issuing no objection certificate (NOC) to import two toxic ships despite the order of restriction.
The rule is returnable within two weeks. The higher court also fixed November 28 for holding the hearing on the rule.
An HC bench issued the rule upon Department of Shipping DG Commodore Bazlur Rahman and its chief Chemist Mosharraf Ashraf following a contempt of court petition filed by Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (Bela).
Earlier, Bela had filed the petition with the HC against six government high officials for providing no objection certificate (NOC) to two toxic ships–MV BADRI and MT BO– and allowing them to enter into the country’s territory.
The court however exempted four high officials from the contempt of court charge as they offered unconditional apology to the HC for issuing environmental certificate and permitting the toxic ships to enter into the country’s territory.
The four exempted officials were Monowar Islam, director general (DG) of the Department of Environment (DoE) and its director (Chittagong) Zafar Alam; Chairman of Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) Reazuddin Ahmed and Collector of customs (Import) Golam Kibria.
Source: The Daily Star – 07.11.2010
