The High Court on Sunday cleared the way for the installation of the much-talked-about coal-fired power plant near Sundarban at Rampal in Bagherhat.
The bench of Justice AHM Shamsuddin Chowdhury and Justice Gobinda Chandra Tagore passed the order after the attorney general, Mahbubey Alam, had prayed for vacating the court's March 1 order on the maintenance of a status quo on the power plant project.
The court on March 1 also issued a rule on the government asking it to explain why its decision on the establishment of the power plant near Sundarban should not be declared illegal.
The court had issued the order order after hearing a public-interest litigation writ petition filed by the Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh seeking cancellation of the installation of the power plant near Sundarban as this might damage the environment.
The bench, which on Sunday heard the government's prayer for vacating the status quo order, said that the March 1 rule would not obstruct the signing of the treaty with India on the installation of the power plant as the status quo was no longer in force.
Mahbubey Alam told the court that the government had wanted to sign the agreement during the the visit of the Indian prime minister to Dhaka in September 6-7.
He also said that the government needed to make an early decision on the installation of the power plant with a capacity to generate 1,320MW of electricity as the people are suffering because of power shortage.
The Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh's counsel Manzill Murshid opposed the government's prayer saying that Sundarban, one of the world's largest mangrove forests, could be damaged and it might invite more natural disasters if the power plant is set up.
He added that the rule should be expeditiously disposed of and no order should be passed in the mean time allowing the government to set up the plant.
The court, however, said that it would hear the rule in October when the court resumes after its month-long vacation.
The Power Development Board and India's National Thermal Power Corporation have decided to ink a deal and register a joint venture company with the Registrars of Joint Stock Companies and Firms to set up the plant.
The power board signed a memorandum of understanding with the Indian company in 2010 to set up two coal-fired plants, each with the capacity to generate 1,320MW of electricity, with partnership shared equally between them.
Experts in Bangladesh said that the planned coal-fired power plants would drastically reduce the diversity of vegetation, wildlife and micro-organisms in Sundarban.
Bangladesh Paribesh Andolon, Sundarban Parjatan Club, Krishi Jami Rakkha Sangram Parishad, and the Centre for Human Rights Movement also protested at the initiative.
According to the organisations, if the plant near Sundarban is put in operation, it will severely damage the biodiversity of the forest in two years and the farmers of the project area will lose their land.
They also pointed out that the site selected for the plant was only nine kilometres from Sundarban, which will be disastrous to the world heritage site.
Referring to the devastation cyclones such as Sidr and Aila caused, rights activists said that Sundarban would not be able to serve as a natural barrier to the protection of the people in a large area of the coastal region from such calamities if the power plant is built because it would destroy the trees that are 3-8m high.
According to experts, the project will destroy the ingredients of the soil that support the lives of millions of inhabitants of a large region, increase the proportion of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide in the air and seriously harm the flora and fauna of Sundarban.
Source : New Age
