Staff Reporter :
The government has set last deadline for relocating tanneries from the capital’s Hazaribagh area to Savar within December 30 this year.
“Hazaribagh tanners must relocate their factories to Savar by December 30 otherwise gas and electricity supplies will be snapped from their establishments,” said Industries Minister Amir Hossain Amu.
The minister made the statement while visiting to Tannery Industrial Park at Hemayetpur of Savar on Sunday noon.
He was accompanied by Industries Secretary Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan. The minister expressed his displeasure over the unnecessary delay in relocating tanneries from Hazaribagh area by their owners although the government has provided them all facilities to run factories at the industrial park.
“Although the government asked them several times to shift their factories to Savar, the owners are delaying unnecessarily resorting to various tricks,” said Amu.
Issuing warnings, the minister said, “This will be the final deadline and there will be no scope of time extension further. If the tanners do not abide by the December 30 deadline, the government will disconnect their gas and power lines from the next day.
He also assured that the authorities would complete the remaining work within the period.
“The government would scrap contracts of the tanners who are yet to start their factory relocation process. They will also face legal actions,” he said.
Earlier, the tanners missed several such deadlines issued by the government.
On April 1, the government suspended rawhide supply to Hazaribagh tanneries as they had failed to meet the March 31 deadline.
The government then again extended the March 31 deadline till April 10 following a request from the Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC), the implementing agency of the tannery estate project.
