People should learn how to use polythene products so that they do not harm environment. In some cases it is not possible to close all the polythene factories although polythene bag is banned countrywide, Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister Shahab Uddin said while briefing at ministry. The minister presented statistics on banned polythene seizures and fine collection in the operation of the Department of the Environment for the past six months. He said that in the last six months, 126 mobile courts seized 126 tones of polythene.
"It is not possible to close all polythene producing factories at a time. We have banned polythene, however, in some cases there is a scope of using polythene. I will stop the production of polythene which are already prohibited under the policy of the government.” He said. "However, we don’t want to ban those that are not prohibited. We are making alternative bags such as jute generated sonali bag which is biodegradable and safer for environment. The use of polythene cannot be stopped even with punishment. People have to be motivated through awareness”
To strengthen the activities of the Department of Environment, in eight divisional cities and 36 districts we have set up office and necessary manpower has been provided. Shahab Uddin said, "We have also plans to prevent air pollution. We have set up 16 camps to assess the air quality in large district cities including Dhaka.”
“58% of our air pollution is from brick kilns. Appropriate plans and laws have been passed to close down brick kilns. ” Regarding noise pollution, the minister said, “We have legally forbidden hydraulic horn to control noise pollution. If people are aware, noise pollution can be stopped. We want to end noise pollution. ”
He said that action was taken against the grabbers of forest land. The land recovery is in process. I hope to be able to recover land soon. ” He also talked about setting up a power plant at Rampal in Bagerhat near Sundarbans. “There is nothing harmful to the environment because of the Rampal Coal Power Plant. The power plant will not do anything harmful to the environment and the mangrove forest. ”