MEHERPUR, Oct 23: The brick kiln owners in the district are violating rules while running their kilns. Earlier, there were 91 brickfields in the district, but now five more new ones are going to be added to the existing number. Besides, not all the brickfields have licences, said official sources.
A views-exchange meeting with the owners of the local brickfields was held on October 9 at the conference room of the District Collectorate with Deputy Commissioner (DC) Porimal Singha in
the chair.
The meeting was also attended, among others, by Director of Khulna Divisional Environment Department Dr. Mollick Anwar Hossain, its Deputy Director Esrat Jahan, and Deputy Director of the Environment Department in Kushtia Munshi Muniruzzaman.
According to a resolution in the meeting, there are 91 brickfields in the district, and of those four are of zigzag system, 44 of fixed chimney system, and 43 of barrel-made temporary chimney system. But, now five more barrel-made chimney kilns are being built at Subidpur, Khoksha and Ashrafpur villages under Sadar upazila, and Dariapur and Purandarpur villages under Mujibnagar upazila of the district.
President of Fixed Chimney Kiln Owners Association Golam Rasul said, "Every year we pay VAT and tax to the government, but the owners of barrel-made chimney kilns do not pay single digit revenue. For setting up a fixed-chimney kiln, more money than a barrel-made chimney kiln is required. But the owners of the barrel-made chimney kilns are charging prices like the fixed-chimney kiln owners. As a result, the buyers are being cheated."
On behalf of the barrel-made chimney kiln owners, one Jahangir said, in the meantime they have invested huge money in their brickfields this year, and if they are not allowed to manufacture bricks, they will face enormous losses while many labourers will become unemployed and the price of bricks will increase.
Director of Khulna Divisional Environment Department Dr. Mollick Anwar Hossain informed the meeting that as the kilns with zigzag system are environment-friendly, these are legal according to Bricks Manufacturing and Kilns Establishing (Control) Act, 2013.
He further said, "The kilns with barrel-chimney system pollute the environment more compared to the other kilns. A fixed-chimney kiln can be turned into a zigzag system one, but a barrel-chimney kiln cannot be turned so." He urged the district magistrate to look after the matter.
In the past, people saw that the owners of illegal brick kilns, by managing the local administrations, made bricks ignoring the government ban. For the current season, they have already started to collect fund to run their kilns, he added.
As per the Bricks Burning Control Act 1992, one may be sentenced to 10 years' rigorous imprisonment and fined Tk 50,000 for violating the law of the land. As per the act, maximum 1.5 acres of fallow land can be used for a brickfield but in practice it is found that the owners are using more than 5 acres of agricultural land even in the residential areas. The present law permits to burn some 4-lakh bricks a year in a single field but the unscrupulous owners burn more than 60-lakh bricks per year through the fixed-chimney kilns and 21-lakh through the barrel-chimney kilns violating the government ban. Besides, they are even violating the law by using firewood in the kilns as fuel.
While talking to The Daily Observer, DC and Deputy Magistrate Porimal Singha said, "I have already requested the illegal kiln owners to convert their brick fields into legal ones. There is no opportunity to give legality to the illegal kilns."
In reply to further queries, the DC told that he had instructed his officers to tell the owners of the barrel-made chimney system not to proceed any more.
He, however, firmly said that they would leave no stone unturned to stop the brick kilns running illegally in the district.
