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Errant tanners start paying fines to state coffer

Talha Bin Habib | Published: August 20, 2016 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00


The tanners at Hazaribagh in the capital have started paying fines, as imposed by the Supreme Court, to the state coffer following their failure to relocate their units to Savar, officials said.
They are depositing the fines with a branch of Sonali Bank in the capital from August 11 last for  delay in relocation of their units to the newly-built leather industrial park at Savar and pollution of environment of the capital.   
In eight days until August 18 last, the amount deposited stood at around Tk 4.0 million, an official of Dhaka Tannery Estate, Savar told the FE.
At present, there are 154 tanneries at Hazaribagh, still polluting the environment of the area.
"Tanners started depositing the money to Sonali Bank in Dhaka from August 11 last," senior secretary of the ministry of industries (MoI) Md Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan told the FE.
The High Court (HC) on April 12 last ordered the MoI for submitting a list of tanners that did not take any step for relocating their units to Savar.
 On June 16, the HC had fined the tanneries Tk 50,000 per day for failing to move to the industrial park in Savar, designated for housing the 155 leather-processing units of Hazaribagh that pollute the Buriganga River close to the capital city.
The Supreme Court (SC) on July 18 lowered the Hazaribagh tanneries' daily penalty to Tk 10,000 from the initial amount of Tk 50,000.
An Appellate Division bench of the SC, led by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha, issued the order lowering the penalty.
The SC ordered each of the 154 tanneries to pay the amount in penalty for polluting the environment until they move their units to the new hub at Savar from Hazaribagh.
The senior secretary of the MoI said that around 25 tanners started construction work at the new tannery estate.
"We hope, it will be possible for them (25 tanners) to move to the new site within the next two months," he said.
Tanners said they have no way out now but to shift to Savar as it is an insurmountable task for them to stay at the present site at a financial cost of paying Tk 10,000 per day in fine.  
"The tannery estate at Savar is now ready for relocation of the units from Hazaribagh," Md Abdul Ouayum, project director of the tannery estate, told the FE.
    talhabinhabib@yahoo.com

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