The leather products accessories industries and their workers demanded on Monday for 50 acres of land to rehabilitate their tannery-supporting businesses and residences and hospitals for the labourers. Hazaribagh tannery workers, tannery chemical traders, leather merchandisers, technicians and transport workers said the land should be provided near Savar Leather Industrial Estate where the tanners were being relocated. They said a modern industrial installation would not be compliant without proper accommodation, health and other civic facilities for the workers. On Monday, leaders of the coordination committee of leather industry accessory organisations held a news conference to voice their demands at the National Press Club in the city. They also urged the government to withdraw orders that canceled plots earlier allocated to chemical traders, importers and leather goods manufacturers. The committee convener and president of the Tannery Workers’ Union, Abul Kalam Azad, said that the government was only facilitating the tannery owners, neglecting the workers and other accessory providers. Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation, a wing of the ministry of industries, is implementing the tannery relocation project from Hazaribagh to Savar on mainly environment grounds. The authorities have already allocated plots among 155 out of 195 tanners on the 200-acre estate. Citing a fresh process of acquiring some more 200 acres of land, Azad, complained that the authorities were planning to rehabilitate the rest of the tanners, ignoring the other stakeholders. Azad said that ministry of industries had formed a committee led by BSCIC chairman in 2014 to resolve the problems. However, the committee is yet to begin its works. Sujaul Karim Nipu, the member secretary of the committee, said around 60,000 people, other than the tanners, would be affected by the relocation project. The organisers of the Tannery Workers Union, Leather Chemical Traders’ Cooperative Ltd, Bangladesh Leather and Leather Goods Manufacturers Cooperative Society Ltd, Leather Engineers and Technologists Society, Bangladesh Chemical Importers and Merchant Association and Bangladesh Leather Exporters Association, among others, were present at the news conference.
