Staff Reporter :
The High Court (HC) on Thursday directed the 154 Hazaribagh tannery owners to deposit Tk 30.85 crore to the state exchequer within two weeks for failure to pay the compensation money for polluting the environment.
The HC bench of Justice Md Ashfaqul Islam and Justice Ashish Ranjan Das passed the order after hearing a contempt of court petition.
The court also said if the tanneries failed to convey with the order they would have to face tough action.
Appellate Division of the Supreme Court (SC) in July last year ordered every tannery owner to pay Tk 10,000 per day for polluting the environment in the area. The SC also ordered the tanners to relocate their industries to Savar from Hazaribagh.
It was later seen that the tannery owners did not relocate their industries. Even they did not pay the compensation. At this a petition was filed with the court.
Industries Secretary Md Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan appeared before the High Court recently and informed the court that 154 tanneries, which were operating in the Hazaribagh area in Dhaka, did not pay Tk 30.85 crore in compensation for polluting the environment.
Counsel for the petitioners Advocate Monzill Murshid said that yesterday he sought the court’s directives in this regard seeking compensation.
Hearing his petition, the court ordered the Hazaribagh tannery owners to deposit Tk 30.85 crore in the state exchequer in two weeks.
In reply to a question Advocate Monzill Murshid said that the amount had been accumulated from August last year to February this year.
The High Court on January 25 summoned the industries secretary to appear on February 7 for submitting explanation over collecting compensations from tannery owners at Hazaribagh in Dhaka for damaging the environment.
The HC passed the order following a petition filed by Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh (HRPB) recently.
Monzill Murshid told reporters on January 25 that the HC in June last year directed the tanners to compensate Tk 50,000 per day each for polluting the environment until they relocate their industries to Savar.
The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in July, 2016 ordered each of the tanneries to compensate Tk 10,000 per day after modifying the HC directive, he said.
The HC in a verdict in 2001 had ordered to relocate tannery industries.
