Home ›› 03 Jun 2022 ›› Nation
Shortage of manpower and equipment at the Rangpur divisional office of the Department of Environment hampers its proper functioning trigger problems.
According to the officials at the department, for long, the office is running with only one-third of designated officials and employees.
The organogram says, 26 officials including director and deputy director were supposed to be posted at the office but there are only nine officials and employees as per documents.
Though documents say there are nine staff members at the office, three of them including an executive magistrate have been posted to other offices on deputation. Seventeen posts remain vacant for long.
Requesting anonymity, an officer said, a class I magistrate is posted at the office as per the organogram but he is on deputation now.
A laboratory attendant has been attached with Pabna district office of the department and an office assistant is deputed at the department’s Dinajpur office. No officials and employees have yet been posted in the office against the posts.
Posts of senior chemist , junior chemist, accountant, senior technician, stenographer cum computer operator, data entry operator, store keeper, process surveyor, office assistant, sample collectors, security guards and three inspector remain vacant for many days.
The office does not even have any excavator.
The department’s regular drives against anti-environment activities remain halted as many of the officials and employees have been deputed elsewhere and attached to other places.
A director of the department, Syed Farhad Hossain, said the department has to carry out huge tasks and take responsibilities but its divisional office is run by a six-member staff against an organogram of 26 officials and employees.
“Though, we’ve a single executive magistrate in the office, he is attached elsewhere. We don’t have any excavator. We have to rent the machine when we conduct drives. So, it becomes tough for us to carry out the regular duties. We also informed the ministry concerned in details,” he added.
DoE has to serve manifold responsibilities to maintain healthy environment in the region. Factories and industries need regulatory approval from the department for operation. It has to conduct drive to file cases and charging fine against individual and industrial units those violate the code of conduct and create pollution.
The department has also responsibility to visit and monitor the factories and industrial units on regular basis and approve site clearance and certification for setting up new industrial units and their operation based on the findings. It also receives allegations of environment pollution and conducts survey collecting sample from pond-tube-well waters from different areas to examine and test the quality.
The department launches awareness programme for environmental protection engaging people aiming to save the bio-diversity losses and to protect the ecological balance of the nature. It also has the duty to run regular drive against the mills, factories manufacturing banned polythene and shopping bag and the trading.
Syed Farhad Hossain said recently he also disclosed there are some 953 brick-klins in eight districts under Rangpur division that threatens the environment. Of them some 819 brick-kiln have set up illegally.
Many of the brick-fields have been built on agricultural lands near residential areas. There are some 521 auto-rice mills and some of those are running illegally. The department fails to conduct drive against the illegal brick-kilns and the auto-rice mills due to shortage of manpower.
