Cancel plots allocated to tannery owners: Greens
UNB
Green activists yesterday demanded immediate cancellation of plots allocated to tannery owners for their failure to relocate their factories from Hazaribagh to Savar within the stipulated time, and putting an end to the operation of tanneries in the capitals Hazaribagh area, reports UNB.
Addressing a press conference, they also asked the authorities concerned to disconnect utility services -- electricity, gas and water connections -- to all the tanneries running in Hazaribagh area.
Poribesh Bachao Andolon (Poba), a voluntary organisation, arranged the press conference at its Kalabagan office to present its observations on tannery relocation.
Poba chairman Abu Naser Khan, its executive general secretary Eng Abdus Sobhan, secretary of its committee on Health and Food Lenin Chowdhury and right activist Adv Syed Mahbubul Alam, among others, spoke at the press conference. On January 10, Industries Minister Amir Hossain Amu instructed the Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC) to shut down the tanneries that would fail to shift to Savar within 72 hours. Despite his ultimatum, the owners are yet relocate their factories to Savar claiming that they need a few more months for moving to Savar Tannery Estate. Most of the 155 industrial units, the speakers said, are yet to be completed as construction works were going on. If the tanneries are not relocated, pollution in the Buriganga River as well as Dhaka city will be on the rise, causing various environmental hazards, they added.
Meanwhile, the government has served legal notices to the owners of 28 tanneries who are yet to start work to relocate their factories from Hazaribagh in the capital to Savar.
The government initially took the three-year project in 2003 to set up the industrial park spending Tk 175.75 crore to relocate some 205 tanneries from Hazaribagh considering the health and environment hazards in the capital.
