Smoked out of school

Students of Dolapara Government Primary School in Dimla upazila have not been able to attend classes for over a week, due to polluted environment inside school premises caused by road construction work.

The assigned road construction contractor has been melting pitch in a melting machine inside the school campus using waste materials. The dense smoke that is discharged throughout the day has been causing immense air pollution.

Golam Mostofa Azad, the school's headmaster, said the contractor set up the hazardous machine and piled stones on school campus around one and half months ago to start the road construction work. 

“They started working during Ramadan vacation, without our permission,” he added.

Upazila engineer of Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) in Dimla Abu Jafar Saleh said they called tenders for the maintenance work of the 3.5km-long road, connecting Motir Bazar with Baro Bisha bridge, in 2017-2018 fiscal year at the cost of Tk 1.11 crore. Messers Asha Construction received the work order to stretch the road in front of the school.

Visiting the school on Thursday during school hours, this correspondent found that the entire school campus was covered in smoke as labourers hired by the contractor were melting pitch using discarded footwear, old tattered tyres and plastic goods, mixing it with rocks in a large machine set up only five meters away from the class rooms.

It was also found that piles of rocks are also kept there, making it difficult for the students to move around.

Only nine students, belonging to classes four and five, out of its 160 were attending classes.

Azad further said, “After the end of vacation, I requested the contractor's representative to remove the materials from the school grounds. He agreed but didn't keep his word. Finding no other alternative, I lodged a written complain to the upazila primary education officer to take action.”

Shimu Akhter, a student of class 5 at the school, said, “Most students stopped attending classes as severe air and sound pollution are making them sick.”

Contacted, Milanuzzaman Mintu, the contractor's representative looking after the work, admitted to keeping construction materials and operating the machine on school campus as there is no other elevated land in the area.

Assistant Upazila Primary Education Officer Kazol Chandra Roy said, “We asked the contractor to remove the materials from the school campus within 2-3 days. Otherwise, we will request the UNO to launch a mobile court to evict them.”