The penalised tanners have yet to start relocating their units to Savar from Hazaribagh even after two weeks of the latest court verdict, while fines are accumulating into their accounts. At present, there are 154 tanneries at Hazaribagh, still polluting the environment around. And most of them have yet to pay the court-imposed fines to government exchequer, sources said. Visiting the area the FE correspondent found Friday most of the units running as usual while a very few, according to tanners, closed for some days. The Supreme Court on July 18 lowered the Hazaribagh tanneries’ daily penalty to Tk 10,000 from the initial amount of Tk 50,000. An Appellate Division bench of the SC, led by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha, gave the order commuting the penalty. The SC ordered each of the 154 tanneries to pay the amount in penalty for polluting the environment until they move their units to new hub in Savar area from Hazaribagh. Bangladesh Tanners Association, Bangladesh Finished Leather, Leather Goods and Footwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association had filed an appeal on June 23 seeking stay on the HC order regarding the penalty. On June 16, the HC had fined the tanneries Tk 50,000 per day for failing to relocate to the industrial park in Savar, designated for housing the 155 leather-processing units of Hazaribags that pollute the Buriganga River close by the area of capital city. The Ministry of Industries (MoI) had submitted a list of the tanners that did not make the move. The HC on April 12 last ordered the MoI for submitting list of tanners that did not take any measure for relocating their units to Savar. Of them, only the Unit-2 of Reliance Tannery has moved to Savar, and 144 others are set to start the relocation process. The government tried repeatedly to relocate the tanners from the area, but failed. The latest attempt was a March 31 deadline set during an inter-ministerial meeting on March 20. The process of relocating the tanneries from Hazaribagh to Savar has been pending since 2001, when the HC ordered relocation of the tanneries that are mainly responsible for polluting the Buriganga. An industrial estate has been set up in Savar specifically to host the tanneries that have been directed to relocate. The government also disbursed Tk 2.5 billion (Tk 250 crore) as compensation to the tanners, and 155 plots were allocated to them on the site at Harindhara in Savar. In 2009, the court set February 24, 2010 deadline for the tanners to shift out of the city heart to Savar. That deadline was extended further several times at government’s behest. In April this year, the government turned down the tanners’ plea for more time to move. “The Savar industrial estate for tannery sector is now ready for relocation of the units from Hazaribagh,” an official of the project told the FE. When contacted, president of Bangladesh Tanners Association Shaheen Ahmed told the FE that they were expecting that 25 to 30 tanneries would be able to shift to Savar from Hazaribagh before Eid-ul-Ajha, the holy fiesta when myriad sacrificial animals are slaughtered and as many pieces of hide flood into the hub. “We hope 25- 30 tanneries will be shifted to Savar from Hajaribagh before Eid-ul-Ajha,” he said. Tanners said they have no way but to shift to Savar as it is an insurmountable task for them to remain on the present site at a financial cost of paying fines worth Tk 10,000 each per day.
