If they were "illegal" why were/are they in an open business field in the first place?
Check back in a year.
I guarantee that NOT a single so-called illegal brick kiln will have moved anywhere else.
And this story will have fallen off the headlines by then.
Why?
The answer is simple.
Asking the Nepal government -- ANY Nepal government -- to do this or that is the SUREST way to make sure that the work does NOT get done at all.
If that's so, then, why this SC tamasha?
Again, the answer is simple.
This is how these things work in Nepal: Usually, some eager-beaver (environmental) NGO files a vague lawsuit -- vague because there is often no indication of exacty who's been harmed and in what way and costing how much because of these "illegal" brick kilns.
The lawsuits make GENERAL environmental/legal arguments.
I mean, who in her right mind ever going to oppose the removal of "illegal" brick kilns or the introduction of env. friendly technology?
The SC, playing the easy Good Cop, taps out its order to the government to do this or that within a specified time.
The government nods yes, and then ignores SC's orders.
Besides, the brick kiln lobby/cartel is quite powerfu.
l
In a few weeks, with -- despite Nepal's competitive media world -- no newspaper following this story to the end, the story will have blown over altogether.
Happens all the time, as it happened with:
-Human rights violations
-women's right to property rights
-and countless others that I can't think of right now as I type this fast.
Meantime, the "hero" NGO gets additional grants from its donors, and its chiefs then
use this "legal victory" as an excuse to go around the world as "environmental
activists from the Himalayan Kingdom of Nepal".
Don't get me wrong.
I am NOT trying to be cynical or Mr. Wise Guy here. As a citizen, I am as frustrated as you are with how these things, if you quietly follow them for some time, play out again and again to the SAME conclusion in Nepal: in inaction.
Perhaps a better legal strategy could have been:
Take one SPECIFIC named certifiably "illegal" brick kiln,
hire experts to calculate the damage in rupees done by that brick kiln in terms of lost govt revenue and increasing public health hazards, and
then slam it with a lawsuit,
ask for damages worth millions of rupees.
And have a court order it to pay up that big money, which is likely to drive out of buisiness altogether.
Unless huge amounts of money change hands from offenders to victims, and unless there is a relentless follow-ups, almost all of these "legal victories" remain
victories on paper only.
This action is more likely to make other illegal brick kilns either be legal and compliant to environmental laws or close shop altogether.
Disagreements welcome so that we can learn from one another.
oohi
ashu
