Shifting tanneries to Savar
The authorities
concerned must ensure tannery relocation
and save the environment
and the people
The unending tale of tannery relocation continues. The government is giving fresh deadline at regular intervals to shift the tanneries from Hazaribagh, but the tannery owners, showing different excuses, are not following the directive. In the latest move, the government has again extended the timeline up to April 30. In the last move, the government warned that, if by March 30, the owners did not shift tanneries, it would cut off gas, water and electricity supply lines. It also warned that rawhides would not be allowed to enter Hazaribagh tanneries. According to a report published in this newspaper yesterday, rawhides indeed are not being allowed to enter the tanneries for processing.
Now the question is whether the tannery owners would be willing to shift their business set-ups within the remaining 10 days in their handaccording to the fresh timelinewhen they are actually asking for three to four months more for the tannery relocation. The tannery owners have always put forward that absence of a central effluent treatment plant (ETP) at the Savar sitewhere the owners are given plotsas the main reason for which they are being unable to shift tanneries.
But according to the report, the Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation has already established two units of a central ETP partially. Moreover, the government is also saying that different utility lines such as sewage and water are also complete. Furthermore, when the government is ready to give gas connection to tanneries at Savar, it is surprising that owners are not applying for it.
Now the question that naturally arises: why the owners are dilly dallying in shifting their plants from Hazaribagh? Is that they are not willing to go to Savar leaving the capital? If ultimately it appears that for no good reason, they are not moving to Savar, the government must show toughness on its part and cancel their business licenses and allocation of plots at the Savar site. It is still more surprising that, reportedly, some people in whose name plots were allotted as Savar have already sold their plots to other people.
The point is tanneries of Hazaribagh that release poisonous and toxic elements to the river Buriganathe lifeline of Dhaka cityhave to be shifted. And in this move the government has to extend all possible support to tannery owners who are willing to move their plants. It is, however, expected that this time the tannery owners will be able to move their plants by April 30, the latest timeline.
