The High Court (HC) on Monday directed the government to shut down all tanneries operating in the city’s Hazaribagh area without delay.
The court also ordered to disconnect gas, power and water lines of those industries accusing them of polluting the environment and violating of HC directives.
Ministries of Home, Environment, Industries and Inspector General of Police (IGP) and Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Commissioner have been asked to assist the Department of Environment to shut down the tanneries.
The HC Bench of Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed and Justice Md Salim passed the order after hearing a petition filed by the Bangladesh Environment Lawyers’ Association (BELA).
The court fixed April 6 for submission of progress report on shutting down the tanneries and fixed April 10 for further hearing in this regard.
Upon a writ petition, filed by BELA, the High Court in June 2009 directed the tannery owners to move the tanneries from Hazaribagh to Savar by February 2010. In October 2010, the date was extended to April 2011.
On December last year, the Industries Secretary issued a notice saying that no raw leather will enter Hazaribagh after March 31, 2017 and no tannery will operate thereafter March 31, 2017.
BELA submitted a petition to the HC on January 3 and argued that the Industries Secretary had no authority to extend the time for relocating the tanneries from Hazaribagh without permission from the HC.
After holding hearing on the petition, the HC yesterday directed the Director General of Department of Environment to immediately shut down the tanneries at Hazaribagh and their utility services, Chief Executive Officer of BELA, Syeda Rizwana Hassan, told the reporters after the court order.
According to the report submitted by the Industries Secretary, 43 tanneries only out of 154 were relocated in Savar. Rest 122 tanneries are operating in Hazaribagh. Even they did not pay the compensation fixed by the Appellate Division for polluting the environment.
At this, the HC ordered the government to shut down all the tannery industries operating at Hazaribagh soon as per section 4(3) and 4(ka) of Environment Protection Act.
Senior Advocate Fida M Kamal took part in the hearing on behalf of BELA. Chief Executive Officer of BELA Advocate Syeda Rizwana Hassan, Advocate Minhazul Haque Chowdhury and Advocate Saeed Ahmed Kabir assisted him. Advocate Rais Uddin Ahmed represented the Industries Ministry.
Meanwhile, the High Court on Thursday directed the 154 Hazaribagh tannery owners to deposit Tk 30.85 crore in the state exchequer within two weeks for failure to pay the compensation fixed by the Appellate Division 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 comply 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, nor did they pay the compensation. At this a petition was filed with the court.
The Industries Secretary Md Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan appeared in the High Court recently and informed the court that 154 tanneries, which were operating at the Hazaribagh in Dhaka, did not pay Tk 30.85 crore as compensation for polluting the environment.
Counsel for the petitioners Advocate Monzill Murshid said that he had sought the court’s directives in this regard.
Hearing his petition, the court ordered the Hazaribagh tannery owners to deposit Tk 30.85 crore in the State exchequer in two weeks.
