Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday expressed her displeasure over the unnecessary delay in relocating tanneries from the capital’s Hazaribagh area by their owners although the government has provided them with various facilities at Savar.
“We don’t know why they’re delaying (in relocating tanneries). This is not fair,” she said.
The prime minister was speaking at a programme held at Krishibid Institution in Dhaka.
She said the government has established an estate at Savar for relocation of tanneries from Hazaribagh. “We’ve also arranged waste treatment facilities there, but the tanners are making unnecessary delay,” said the prime minister.
Although the government asked them several times to shift their factories to Savar, the owners are delaying unnecessarily resorting to tricks, the prime minister said.
Hasina said the quicker the tannery owners relocate their factories the faster the environment of Hazaribagh and adjacent areas will improve.
The Supreme Court has ordered each of the 154 tannery owners at Hazaribagh to pay the government 10,000 taka ($125) a day as fine for not relocating their factories within the given time.
The court also ordered the government to donate 50% of the fine to National Liver Foundation of Bangladesh.
On June 28, the Supreme Court stayed till July 17 its earlier order that penalised 154 Hazaribagh-based tanneries for not relocating to the Tannery Estate within the stipulated time after Bangladesh Tanners Association (BTA) filed an appeal with the Supreme Court seeking a stay on the High Court (HC) order.
On June 16, the High Court directed 154 tannery owners to pay the fine of 50,000 taka per day to the government as the industries ministry submitted a report to the HC mentioning that a total of 154 tanneries were yet to be shifted to the designated site in Savar.
Following the report, the High Court said each of the 154 tannery owners will have to pay 50,000 taka as fine every day until the relocation of their factories to Savar.
On April 1, the government suspended rawhide supply to Hazaribagh tanneries as they had failed to meet the March 31 deadline, the latest in a line of several such deadlines missed in the past.
The government then again extended the March 31 deadline till April 10 following a request from the Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC), the implementing agency of the tannery estate project.
Sheikh Hasina said 3Rs - reduce, reuse and recycle - projects were taken in industries to control environment pollution. Industry owners will have to be more sincere and take initiative in waste management as the government has made mandatory establishment of ETP at all waste- generating industries, she said.
About her government’s initiatives to set up 100 economic zones in the country, the prime minister stressed the need for keeping in mind the issues of protecting the environment and building water bodies and other facilities there.
She also asked the forest and environment ministry to strictly monitor the issue.