Illegally set up factories may be legalised

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The government is mulling the legalisation of factories set up illegally in the Bhawal National Park, but has decided not to allow any new factories on the protected forest.

The director general of the environment department has been asked to look into specific and stringent regulations for the factories to continue operating in the 2,572-acre core area of the nature reserve, said the Chief Adviser’s Press Secretary Syed Fahim Munaim yesterday after the weekly cabinet meeting.

The government would consider giving clearance certificates to the factories and other structures there if they meet the conditions set in the new regulations.

As of 2006, the environment department handed out such certificates to 16 factories.

New conditions would include eco-friendly provisions in the factories such as effluent treatment plants and limit of the size and operation, Fahim said.

Fahim said that not many people had followed the existing rules on constructing structures in the protected area, and that’s why the government would also look into better enforcement of the rules.

Although a state gazette notification had banned setting up of any structures, at least 196 factories and other structures, including poultry and fishery farms, schools, and around a hundred thatched houses had been built in the area until 2004.

The 11,252-acre forest was declared a national park in 1982.

In 2004, a committee had decided to immediately acquire 432.5 acres of state land in the core area and recover the illegally occupied parts of the forest.

Meanwhile, the cabinet also decided yesterday that the Grameen Bank Ordinance 1983 would be amended to expand its operation in urban areas.

Currently, the Grameen Bank is only allowed to operate in rural areas, which would remain the main focus of the bank under the amended rules.

The government, under the law ministry’s advice, also approved the replacement of the word ‘election’ by ‘appointment’ in choosing the Grameen Bank chairperson.

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