The Supreme Court yesterday stayed till July 17 a High Court order that had asked 154 tanners in the city’s Hazaribagh to pay a daily compensation of Tk 50,000 each for damaging the environment. Justice Hasan Foez Siddique, chamber judge of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, passed the order following a petition filed on Monday by Tannery Owners Association and Bangladesh Finished Leather, Leather Goods and Footwear Exporters Association, seeking a stay on the HC order. The judge also sent the petition to the full bench of the Appellate Division for its further hearing on July 17. Following a petition by Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh (HRPB), the HC on June 16 ordered the tanners to pay the compensation until their factories are relocated to Savar Tannery Industrial Estate. The court also ordered the environment secretary to assess environmental damages caused by the tannery units to the Buriganga and submit a report to it by July 17. Citing from the petition, tannery owners’ lawyer Mehedi Hasan Chowdhury told this correspondent that his clients could not shift tanneries as the government is “yet to arrange the logistics”, including a central effluent treatment plant. HRPB’s lawyer Manzill Murshid said some tanneries have already been relocated in line with the HC order. But the 154 units still have been operating in Hazaribagh in violation of HC directives. The HC in 2001 and 2009 had directed the government to take steps for relocation of tanneries by 2010. The court later extended the deadline until 2013.
