Bangladesh News

A huge amount of imported fertiliser stockpiled at different places in the port city’s Sadarghat and Bangla Bazar areas over the last six years is causing serious environmental pollution.

Sources said around 1.5 lakh bags of fused magnesium phosphate (FMP) fertiliser worth about Tk 20 crore have been kept on the government and private land occupying huge space along Sadarghat Strand Road in the city since 2003.

The importer avoided taking delivery as chemical tests showed that the fertiliser was mixed with ground stones and brick chips.

A portion of the imported FMP, kept under the open sky, is getting damaged and harming the environment as it regularly gets rainwater. Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) and Department of Environment (DoE) are issuing warnings to the people concerned but nothing happens, local sources said.

Non-delivery of fertiliser bags has left huge amount of dues unpaid for years and deepened the crisis of storage space, sources said.

Ripon Group of Industries at Bijoynagar, Dhaka imported 1,48,397 bags of fertiliser, each weighing 50 kg, from China in 2001.

The importer with bank liabilities abstained from responding to the repeated calls of contractor and commission agents for taking delivery of the fertiliser and paying the space charge worth over Tk 1.5 crore.

The group entrusted two contractor and commission agents– Babul Enterprise and MY Enterprise –with the task of storing 1,14,397 bags and 34,000 bags respectively for a storage charge of Tk 2 per sq ft.

Apart from their own godowns, the commission agents had to hire space from Bangladesh Jute Corporation (BJC), Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation (BIWTC) and some other private landowners to store the fertiliser at Sadarghat and Bangla Bazar.

Sources said Beacon Engineering Works took lease of the BJC land and later rented out to Babul Enterprise for storing 70,000 bags of fertiliser.

“As the fertiliser remained stockpiled and got damaged over the years, the joint forces during the rule of caretaker government filed a case against me on February 2, 2007 and confiscated the fertiliser. However, confiscation order could be removed later with the help of Chittagong Chamber of Commerce Industry (CCCI),” said Babul Chandra Ghosh, proprietor of Babul Enterprise.

“CPA magistrate in a drive on May 6, 2007 gave a directive to take away the fertiliser, which is seeping into Karnaphuli river and causing water pollution, or to face legal actions,” he added.

“If we take away or dump the fertiliser elsewhere without permission, Ripon Group would have scope to file case demanding compensation from us,” said Babul.

“A number of times I tried to reach Ahsan Habib, proprietor of Ripon Group, over phone but did not get any response. I have sent several legal notices to Ahsan Habib and others of the group but nothing happens. But I have to pay several lakh taka as outstanding space charge from my pocket,” he added.

“It prompted me to file a case with chief metropolitan magistrate court, Chittagong, in October last. I’m now waiting for the court order to go ahead accordingly,” said Babul.

Another commission agent Md Yakub, proprietor of MY Enterprise, also came up with the same allegation and called upon the authorities to help them settle the matter.

“Being leaseholder, we have to pay the rent of the space to BJC regularly and count loss,” said Ahmad Ullah, manager of Beacon Engineering Works and BJC land leaseholder.

He added that they along with Babul Enterprise and three others had to face case filed by the joint forces during the caretaker government.

When contacted, BJC Acting Manager Golam Mostafa Majumder said, “We are getting the rent of the land leased out to Beacon Engineering Works. Yet, we are serving notices regularly to the lease holder to vacate the space that remained blocked for such a long time.”

In this regard DoE, Chittagong Director Abdus Sobhan said, “We have sent notices several times asking all concerned including the commission agents, owner of the land and Ripon Group to take away the damaged fertiliser that have been causing water and air pollution for such a long time.”

“But we have not got any response from Ripon Group till date while others expressed their inability to remove the fertiliser without approval of the importer fearing legal complexities,” said the DoE director.

“We also failed to collect specific address of the importer to take legal action against him,” he said.

“We are now looking forward to the result of the case filed by one of the commission agents (Babul Enterprise) against the importer,” said the director.

Nurul Alam Akhand, deputy general manager of Chittagong BIWTC, declined to make any comment on the matter or to talk to this correspondent without written permission from the higher authorities.

When contacted, Tipu Sultan, the then marketing manager of Ripon Group, said the group has been dissolved. However, he expressed his inability to say anything regarding the latest development.

Ripon Group proprietor Ahsan Habib could not be reached over phone despite repeated attempts.

A source close to Ripon Group said proprietor Ahsan Habib protested declaration of the fertiliser as unusable and demanded its release.

If the fertiliser was tested before taking delivery from vessels and payment to the exporter then it could have been sent back to save Tk 20 crore spent on the import, said the source quoting Habib.