Transparency International Bangladesh holds its annual general meeting at Meghamala conference room of TIB in the capital on Thursday.
Transparency International Bangladesh has called for a fresh environmental assessment involving international experts for the proposed Rampal Power Project.
The call came from the annual meeting of the anti-graft agency held at its auditorium in the capital on Thursday. An EIA prepared in August 2013 by the government’s Centre for Environmental and Geographic Information Services that gave the green light to the project is widely considered to be flawed.
‘Once the coal-fired power plant is set up near the Sunderbans without an acceptable and fair environmental assessment, it will welcome havoc into the mangrove forest,’ said TIB executive director Iftekharuzzaman.
The proposed 1320 MW power station is a joint venture between Bangladeshi and Indian companies. Environmentalist claim that the Rampal power plant will pose a threat to the Sunderbans in various ways as it is located just 4 kilometres outside the designated Ecologically Critical Area of the world’s largest mangrove forest.
The plant is expected to produce 750,000 tonnes of fly ash and 200,000 tonnes of bottom ash a year, according to an earlier environmental impact assessment.
On persistent corruption in the country, the TIB chief said the main work of his organisation is to raise its voice for strengthening legal procures so that the Anti-Corruption Commission, judiciary and law-enforcing agencies can play their respective duties properly in checking graft.
TIB members lamented that the country’s present administration is getting ‘intellectually crippled’ due to unethical hiring practices, including bribes and nepotism.
They demanded the ACC and other government agencies work independently and neutrally to cut corruption in the society and establish democracy, good governance and human rights.
TIB trustee board chairperson adv Sultana Kamal and its member Mohammad Shamsuuddin, among others, spoke at the meeting.
Source: New Age
