Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation on Wednesday served legal notices on the 28 errant tanners directing them to relocate their tanneries from the city’s Hazaribagh within 72 hours. The notice said that BSCIC would force the tanners to evict them by snapping gas, power and water connections to their industries and cancel the allotment of land given to them to run tannery business in Savar industrial belt if they fail to relocate within the deadline. Industries Minister Amir Hossain Amu warned that tanneries would lose their licences if they do not shift by Wednesday from Dhaka’s Hazaribagh to Savar’s tannery estate. Talking to reporters after inaugurating a garment accessories fair in Dhaka, the minister said the government would take legal action against the tanneries, which would fail to meet the deadline. The legal notice said that the tanners had been buying time not to relocate the tanneries since BSCIC allotted 10,000 square feet land in Savar for relocation of the tanneries on April 29, 2007. BSCIC has already constructed all Infrastructures in Savar to run the tanneries, said the notice. The tanners were yet to relocate their industries in two years although BSCIC reminded them for 19 times from February 6, 2014 to December 17, 2015 to shift the tanneries. Supreme Court lawyer Md Shahidul Islam, who sent the legal notices to 28 out of 155 tanners on behalf of BSCIC, told New Age that BSCIC would send legal notices to other tanners phase by phase. The notices have been served on 20 tanners as they have taken no steps to relocate their tanneries after getting allotment of lands in Savar. The notices served on 28 tanners include Kader Leather Complex, Dhaka Tannery Ltd, Yusuf Leather Corporation Ltd, Ibrahim Leather, Chandpur Tannery, City Leather Tannery, Capital Tannery, International Tannery, Bhuiyan Tannery, Rubi Leather Complex Ptv Ltd, Hossain Brothers Tannery, Yusuf Tannery Ltd, Choudhury Leather and Company Ltd, Helena Enterprise Ltd, Aleya Tannery, Sonali Tannery, Shahi Tannery, Delta Leather Complex, Nazrul Tannery, Golden Leather Industries, HS Tannery, Roshney Complex, Komla Tannery Ptv Ltd, Dhaka Hide and Skin Ltd, Pioneer Tannery Ltd, Aziz Tanner Ltd, Mukti Tannery and Leather Industries of Bangladesh. On August 11, 2015 the High Court asked 10 errant tanners to explain in two weeks why contempt proceedings would not be brought against them for not relocating tanneries from the city’s Hazaribagh. The tanners include Arefin Shamsul Alamin, Sayedul Huq Master, Md Mahbubar Rahman Panna, Gias Uddin Pathan, Abdus Salam, MD Rezaul Karim Ansari, Abdul Wadud Miah, Abdul Wahab, Md Mofiz Mia and Akbar Hossain. The bench of justice Md Ashraful Islam and justice Zafar Ahmed issued the rule after industries secretary Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan told the court that the government could not relocate the tanneries in line with verdict delivered by the court in 2001 because of non-cooperation by the tanners. Bhuiyan appeared before the court responding to an earlier summon asking why contempt proceedings would not be brought against him for failure to implement the verdict. The tanneries are to relocate to Savar where the government is setting up treatment effluent plant to treat the hazardous tannery wastes. The court had asked the government to relocate around 200 tanneries which are dumping untreated wastes in the river Buriganga and causing premature death of the city’s main river.
