Only 35 out of 155 tanneries have been relocated to the newly built tannery village at Savar from Dhaka’s Hazaribagh, ahead of the December 30 shifting deadline set by the government. Some tannery owners say they cannot move out before the approaching deadline because their factories are mortgaged to various commercial banks. The government may now extend the relocation deadline for the eighth time. Hazaribagh tanneries have been identified as the main polluters of the Buriganga river and its surroundings. Sources say the authorities are yet to register the plots allotted to tannery owners, a glitch that is believed to be slowing down the relocation process. The government had set December 30 as the deadline for tannery relocation in the seventh extension it granted. “At least 35 tannery owners are now operating in the new tannery village. We hope five or six more will begin their operation by this month,” Abdul Qaiyum, project director of the Savar Tannery Industrial City, told The Independent yesterday. Legal action would be taken if the tanners failed to shift their factories within December 30, he said in reply to a query. “Connections of utility services like gas, water and electricity have given to the shifted factories. We have already started running a central effluent treatment plant on an experimental basis. So, factory owners can easily shift their tanneries to Savar,” Qaiyum said. Leaders of the Bangladesh Tanners’ Association (BTA) were constantly pressing its members to relocate within the time set, Md Shakhawat Ullah, general secretary of the association, told The Independent. He also expressed concern that not all factories would be able to relocate by December 30 due to various problems. “Many factory owners have taken loan from different commercial banks by mortgaging their Hazaribagh factories. So, the banks won’t let them to move before recovering the loans,” the BTA leader said. It would be easier to relocate the factories if the government registers the new plots in favour of the factory owners to whom they have been allotted, making it possible for them pledge them as security, he added. But the authorities concerned have dismissed the plea as an excuse to skip the deadline. “We’ll cancel the allocated plots if tannery owners fail to relocate their factories by December 30. We’ll also sever all utility services—including gas, water and electricity—to these factories on January 1, 2017,” industries minister Amir Hossain Amu said on October 16 last year while visiting the tannery site. On January 10 last year, Amu asked tannery owners to shift their units within 72 hours and directed the authorities to serve legal notices. Later, the authorities extended the deadline to April 3 and then to April 30. The tannery owners, however, sought more time to shift, following which the authorities set a new deadline in June and subsequently on August 30. They were finally asked to shift their factories before Eid-ul-Azha. On July 18, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court (SC) commuted the fine imposed on 154 tanneries at Hazaribagh, which were required to pay Tk. 10, 000 to the government exchequer every day until their relocation to the Savar tannery estate after the stipulated time. In 2001, the High Court (HC) had directed the government to shift the tanneries from Hazaribagh to Savar, in view of the critical condition of the Buriganga caused by discharge of highly toxic effluents. By 2003, untreated waste from more than 200 tanneries had virtually turned the Buriganga into a pool of noxious water. The government set June 2015 as the deadline for shifting the factories from Hazaribagh to the Savar Tannery Industrial City. About 205 plots in Savar have already been allocated to tannery owners. The government has already disbursed Tk. 250 crore to 155 tannery owners for the relocation.
