Where students cannot breathe

Road construction work should not hamper education

Black smoke plumes out of a construction machine on the Dolpara Govt Primary School ground in Dimla upazila of Nilphamari. The mixing machine, set up just a few metres away from the classrooms, has been hampering academic activities for about two months. 


We are outraged by a report in this paper of how students of Dolapara Government Primary School in Nilphamari have been forced to refrain from going to class because they cannot breathe the air around them. A road construction contractor has happily set up a melting pitch right inside the school premises, burning waste material that emits toxic smoke right into the school. Many students have fallen sick after inhaling the smoke-filled air.

Such a situation is completely in contradiction to basic common sense. Let's not even talk about the environmental degradation that such activities cause. Let's just talk about the health of these children whose academic life is also being severely hampered. Where does this contractor get the gumption to just invade a school campus and set up a melting pitch in the first place? The road construction is a government project and the school is government-run. Thus it is in the government's interest that a school it runs should not stop functioning because of development work.

The school authorities had asked a representative of the contractor to remove the melting machine and other material from the premises but the request was ignored. The school had to file an official complaint to the upazilla primary education officer for action to be taken. Now the concerned government department has asked the contractor to leave within two to three days, otherwise face eviction.

What is surprising is that the contractor concerned could get away with such an offense for so long and with such defiance. Did not the concerned government authorities have a responsibility to make sure that any development work authorised by them should not in any way jeopardise public health or wellbeing?

We hope the government will treat this case as an emergency and order the melting machine and other construction material to be immediately removed from the school premises and there should not be any burning of waste material anywhere near the school. Students must be able to come to class again.

• Courtesy: The Daily Star /Editorial/ Jul 03, 2018