The Department of Environment yesterday penalised the owner of an illegal leather gloves factory in Ashulia with a Tk 37 lakh fine. Huiju Beijing Gloves Co Ltd, owned by a Hong Kong national, has been in full operation for the past one year without having obtained the necessary environmental clearance from the authorities. The factory treats the raw leather procured from Hazaribagh with toxic chemicals to produce gloves, 172 tons of which are exported to Japan and Korea. Due to the emission of toxic by-products the factory falls under the 'red' category industry, meaning it is highly pollutant. Mohammad Munir Chowdhury, director of the Department of Environment (DoE), conveyed the sentence to the factory officials: a fine of Tk 37.44 lakh and closure of the factory on charges of environmental pollution. “It is alarming how Bangladesh is being treated as a waste dumping yard in the name of foreign investment,” Munir said. “It is unfortunate that the foreign investors choose to disobey the country's regulations like this.” The penalty comes after a DoE enforcement team found the factory's effluent treatment plant shut, with liquid effluents being drained straight to the river Turag. Over the past one year, 7.5 crore litres of liquid effluent contaminated with ecologically harmful chemicals -- titanium oxide, oxalic acid, degreasing agent and formic acid being the noteworthy ones -- were released into the river. The factory owner was out of country, while the factory officials could not be contacted.