The Department of Environment yesterday fined dyeing factory Apparel Village Ltd Tk 30.31 lakh for polluting water bodies and cultivable land at Birulia in Savar. The penalty came after a team of Rapid Action Battalion-1 led by DoE Director (monitoring and enforcement) Muhammad Munir Chowdhury conducted a raid on the factory. The DoE ran the drive upon receiving complaints that Apparel Village has been discharging untreated liquid waste into a nearby canal and farmland for 10 years. Earlier, locals filed complaints with the authorities against the factories at Kumkumari village near Ashulia for polluting water bodies and agricultural land. DoE sources say Apparel Village has also been running the factory illegally for 10 years without approval. The DoE found 95,000 cubic metres of liquid industrial waste discharged by Apparel Village where the amount of oxygen was less than 1.3 milligram per litre. Asked, the factory authorities could not satisfy the DoE officials with their replies regarding the pollution. Locals say Apparel Village was continuing its operation violating the rules using power of political link. During the drive, the DoE officials opened a drain of the factory and found evidence of huge pollution after testing the canal's water. Although the factory authorities installed an Effluent Treatment Plant in 2008, they have reportedly never used it. The DoE has asked the factory to stop discharging liquid waste in the canal and use the ETP effectively without further delay. The team also found an illegal pipeline set up by Sparkle Knit Composite Ltd. The pipeline was hampering normal water flow of a canal at Zirani near Dhaka-Tangail highway. The DoE team served the factory authorities with a notice in this connection.