The High Court on Monday asked the government to shut down all the tanneries at Hazaribagh in Dhaka immediately as they missed several deadlines for relocation to Tannery Industrial Park at Savar. The bench of Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed and Justice Md Salim also ordered immediate cut-off of utility services, including gas, power and water supply, to the tanneries.The court asked the Department of Environment director general to report the compliance with the order by April 6. It also asked the secretaries of home and industries, inspector general of police and Dhaka Metropolitan Police commissioner to cooperate with the department to shut down the tanneries. Earlier on March 2, another High Court bench asked the owners of 154 tanneries at Hazaribagh to deposit Tk 30.85 crore as fines in arrear to the treasury in two weeks for polluting the environment as a consequence of repeated failure to relocate the tanneries to Savar. The Monday’s High Court order came following a petition filed by Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association on January 3. The bench asked the ministry for industries to submit a report by April 6 detailing cooperation from other agencies in stopping the entry of rawhide to Hazaribagh. BELA chief executive Syeda Rizwana Hasan, referring to government data, told New Age that 155 factories had been operating at Hazaribagh and 43 others had shifted to Savar. She said that responding to an application by BELA, the High Court on June 23, 2009 ordered the tannery owners to shift their factories to Savar by 2010. Emerging from the court, on Monday, Rizwana told reporters that the High Court in October 2010 allowed six months for the Hazaribagh tanneries to relocate.As per the 2010 order, the tannery owners lost the legal approval of operating their factories at Hazaribagh on April 30, 2011, she said.The government, however, time and again extended the deadline e for the relocation of the tanneries and latest extended deadline would expire on March 31, she said, adding that the government extended the deadline without court’s permission. She said that they petitioned the High Court on January 3 challenging the extension of the deadline by the government. Rizwana said that they sought the High Court directives to cut off the utility services and stop operations of the tanneries at Hazaribagh. Lawyer Rois Uddin Ahmed, who appeared for the industries ministry, told reporters that they had earlier informed the court that 43 tanneries had so far shifted to Savar. He said that the ministry on January 31 sought cooperation from different agencies to stop the entry of rawhide to Hazaribagh. Earlier on March 2, the High Court bench of Justice Md Ashfaqul Islam and Justice Ashish Ranjan Das warned of serious consequences if the tanneries failed to deposit Tk 30.85 crore as fines in arrear to the treasury in two weeks. On July 18, 2016, the Appellate Division slashed the daily fine for each non-compliant tannery to Tk 10,000 from Tk 50,000. The daily fine of Tk 50,000 was imposed on each non-compliant tannery by the court on June 16, 2016. The apex court slashed the fine following an appeal from Bangladesh Tannery Owners Association. Responding to a High Court order issued on January 25, industries secretary Md Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan appeared before it on February 13 to inform the court that 154 tanneries still in operation at Hazaribagh did not deposit Tk 30.85 crore in fines. In 2001, the High Court, responding to a writ petition filed in 1994, ordered the Hazaribagh tanneries to set up Effluent Treatment Plant so that they could not pollute the environment.
