Relocation Of Tanneries
Errant owners to face tannery closure, says Amu
Industries minister Amir Hossain Amu on Saturday threatened with closure of tanneries in the capital’s Hazaribagh if their owners fail to transfer those to new site at Savar by next March. ‘Errant tanners would also face cancellation of plots in new tannery estate,’ he said while addressing 50-year anniversary of tannery workers union in the capital on Saturday afternoon. He said the government could not put lives of millions under threat for the interest of few industrialists.
Relocation of hazardous tanneries from the capital was a longstanding demand that remained unfulfilled because of non-cooperation by some tannery owners, he said.
The Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation has been implementing the relocation project in line with a High Court directive since 2003.
The court directed the government to save the River Buriganga threatened by 25,000 tonnes of untreated wastes and 60,000 cubic metres of toxic chemicals released into the river everyday by the tanneries.
But the government failed to relocate the tanneries in 10 years as the tanners missed a number of deadlines.
The government is still struggling to complete project by the present deadline of next March because only 25 tanners out of 155 started construction of their factories in the allocated plots in full swing until last September.
Another 80 have developed only boundary walls and the others are yet to start any work.
-With New Age input
