A petition is likely to be filed in the High Court, seeking that tannery owners personally appear in court and explain why they have not shifted their units from Dhaka’s Hazaribagh to Savar even though a contempt-of-court plea was filed against them. Human Rights for Peace of Bangladesh (HRPB) president, advocate Manzill Murshid, is preparing the contempt petition against the tannery owners for allegedly violating the HC directive to shift their units to Savar. “I will file the petition by next week,” he noted. He reminded that in response to a petition, the HC had on August 11 last year issued a contempt rule against 10 tannery owners for putting obstacles in the way of implementing its earlier order to shift the tanneries. The HC bench, comprising Justice Md Ashfaqul Islam and Justice Jafar Ahmed, had asked the 10 tannery owners to explain in two weeks why contempt of court proceedings should not be initiated against them for obstructing the implementation of its judgment, delivered in 2001. It has been five months, but the respondents have neither shifted their tanneries nor have they replied to the HC. The 10 tannery owners are: Arefin Shamsul Al Amin, MD of Rana Leather Industries Ltd, Sayedul Haque Master, proprietor of M/s Jules Enterprise, Mahbubur Rahman Panna, proprietor of M/s Pubali Tanneries, Giasuddin Ahmed Pathan, MD of Rumi Leather Industries Ltd, Abdus Salam, proprietor of M/s Salam Tannery, Rezaul Karim Ansary, proprietor of Karim Leather Ltd, Abdul Wadud Mia, proprietor of M/s Mahim Tannery, Abdul Wahab, proprietor of M/s Nabipun Tannery, Mafiz Mia, proprietor of M/s Asia Tannery, and Akbar Hossain, MD of M/s Paramount Tannery. Murshid added that the HRPB filed the petition after the industries secretary submitted a report stating that the government could not shift the tanneries to save the Buriganga because of the unwillingness of some tannery owners. Later, the industries secretary gave the HRPB the names of 10 tannery owners who were allegedly responsible for blocking the implementation of the HC directive. The HRPB then filed the contempt-of-court petition against them, said Murshid, adding that another contempt petition would now be filed against them. On January 13, the government served legal notices on the owners of 28 tanneries, but they are yet to start relocating their factories to the Savar industrial park. The legal notices were sent following the end of industries minister Amir Hossain Amu’s 72-hour ultimatum to the Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC) to relocate the factories. Hossain Amu had issued the directive on January 9. The government had earlier set December 31, 2015, as the deadline for the relocation of the tanneries. The government move to relocate tanneries to Savar was initiated 13 years ago to save the Old Dhaka area from serious pollution. The industries ministry took the decision in the face of pressure from rights groups, environmental activists and buyers, because of the tanneries’ hazardous effects on public health and environment. It allocated plots to 155 tannery owners through the BSCIC at the Leather Industrial Park, established on a 200-acre land in Savar.
