1.5 tonnes of banned polythene seized in Rangpur

A mobile court initiated by the Detective Branch (DB) of Rangpur Metropolitan Police (RpMP) seized 1.5 tonnes of illegally produced banned polythene worth Tk 5.25 lakh from a factory in the city on Wednesday afternoon.

“Led by Executive Magistrate of Rangpur district administration Maliha Khanom, police with assistance of the District Department of Environment (DoE) conducted the mobile court on Wednesday afternoon,” a press release said on Thursday.

During the raid, the court seized the huge quantity of illegally produced banned polythene from ‘Messer’s Read Enterprise’ polythene producing factory at Shialu Mour of Shalbon Mistripara area in the metropolis.

After checking documents, the court found that the factory produces polythene beyond the measurements prescribed by the government without registration, fire service certification and fire extinguishing systems.

Besides, the factory has no license, machine operators, permission of the DoE and labourers work there without health certificates and wearing hand gloves and masks while producing polythene without following the health rules in a dirty environment.

The mobile court fined the Manager of the factory Md Mowla Bus Tk 8,000 under the Bangladesh Environment Protection Act, 1995 for illegally producing, storing and marketing polythene violating the Act.

Later, the seized polythene was handed over to the District Department of Environment authorities for destroying those as per law of the land. The court also ordered the factory authority to stop production, stocking and marketing of polythene at the factory until its registration and getting a legal license.