The High Court (HC) yesterday ordered 154 tannery owners, who are yet to relocate their ternaries from Hazaribagh to Savar according to its directive, to pay Tk. 50,000 per day each in compensation for damaging the environment. The HC asked the tannery owners to keep depositing the money to the government fund until they relocate their units to Savar. The HC bench comprising Justice Syed Muhammad Dastagir Husain and Justice AKM Shahidul Huq came up with the order following a petition filed by the Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh (HRPB).
The HC also directed the industries secretary to submit a report before it by July 17, stating whether tannery owners have paid the compensation. It also directed the environment secretary to assess the damage done to the Buriganga river because of the tanneries and to submit a report in this regard by July 17.
Advocate Manzill Murshid, counsel for the HRPB, told The Independent that he would file a petition in the HC, seeking a directive that the owners should appear in court and that they should be jailed if they did not pay the compensation every day as directed.
On June 6, in response to a petition filed by the HRPB, the same HC bench had asked the industries secretary to submit the list of errant tannery owners who were yet to relocate their units to Savar. The industries secretary submitted a list of 155 tanneries. Of those, Reliance Tannery Ltd has since relocated to Savar.
However, Tannery Owners’ Association (TOA) secretary Shahin Ahmed told The Independent that they would move the Supreme Court against the HC order. “We are ready to shift our tanneries to Savar. We cannot do it due to the government’s non-cooperation. It is yet to complete the work of the central effluent treatment plant (CETP) in Savar,” he said.
During the hearing, deputy attorney general Raisuddin told the court that the government was keen to shift the tanneries to Savar. “We are preparing everything to shift the tanneries. All tanneries will move to Savar very soon,” he added.
Opposing his submission, Manzil Murshid reminded the court that in 2001, the HC had directed the government to relocate the tanneries from Hazaribagh within two years to save the Buriganga from pollution. Later, it extended the deadline to February 2010. However, the government is yet to implement the order. He said the tannery owners should pay Tk. 1,000,000 each day as compensation until they relocate their tanneries.
Industries secretary Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan told the HC that the government had issued notices to all tannery owners in Hazaribagh to relocate the hazardous industries to Savar. After hearing both sides, the HC bench gave the order.
The HC had extended the February 2010 deadline by another six months. On October 30, 2010, the HC gave tannery owners another six months to relocate their factories to Savar. Following an appeal from tannery owners, the government had also set several deadlines for them to shift their units to Savar. On April 3 this year, on the expiration of an earlier deadline, the government had extended the deadline by another seven days. Although some owners shifted their tanneries, some are yet to comply with the directive.