Joynal Abedin Khan :The tannery industry owners are unwilling to shift there factories to the Savar Tannery Park (STP) mainly due to absence of common facilities for processing rawhides, insiders said. Five factories only out of 155 are prepared to process the leather-based raw materials, they said. On the other hand, 30 units will go for production within a month while construction work of 84 factories is in underway.It may take two years more for making the park into fully operative. The construction work of 29 factories is under long-term processing and the work at12 factories could not begin due to legal complication. Besides, work on the Central Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP), crucial to control pollution from the relocated tanneries, has stopped a month ago. “How can we shift our factories from Hazaribagh to Savar when construction work of the park is still underway?” Sakhawat Ullah, Secretary General of Bangladesh Tanners Association (BTA) told The New Nation on Saturday. We are ready to go to the STP if the government pays shifting cost of our industries, the BTA leader said. He claimed that police would allow the rawhide-trucks in Hazaribagh factories by taking toll from owners.”If someone fails to pay the police demand, they will miss the chance of business,” the leader alleged. “The relocation process will take time. About 50-60 units will be able to start production at the industrial park by June this year as over 70 percent work have been completed,” he said.”We have got assurance about electricity connection, but the matter of gas connection is still undecided,” he said, adding that the construction of the CETP was not ready yet.Sakhawat said that they would sit with the government to resolve the issue once the association president returns from abroad. The government has taken a firm stance to transfer the tanneries from Hazaribagh amid pressure from local and international rights groups and environmental activists, and buyers because of their hazardous effects on public health and environment. According to sources, a three-year construction work project had started at the park in 2003 and 70 percent estimated work have done in the due time. But the rest 30% work, including the ETP, has yet to finis. As a result, the expenditure of the project. Ekramul Sheikh, Executive Engineer responsible for the CETP, told The New Nation on Saturday that work has been stopped due to the paucity of funds.”The CETP was to be set up in four stages. Forty percent of the work has been completed in the first two stages. But now we are short of funds.”Meanwhile, thousands of workers are facing to lose their jobs in the wake of ban of rawhides to the Hazaribagh factories. Requesting anonymity, a worker of Mizan and Sumon Tannery says, “The government and the owners only think about themselves while we lose our work.””I have been working in this industry for 15-20 years. What am I supposed to do now?”Md Nurul Hossain, a rawhide trader, brings up several issues that small traders like him might now face.Abul Hossain, who brings rawhides from Comilla, is upset with the government that ‘is making the situation all the more confusing’. “I have rawhides worth Tk 20 million at Hazaribagh. I could not sell those, hence I have begun to process those in some factories,” he says. “I owe almost Tk 10 million to some parties there”. A factory in-charge told The New Nation on condition of anonymity, “The government is giving one ultimatum after another, but it is not going to solve the problem.””Foreign buyers have lost interest here. They will be doing business with us only if we can give them the supplies they need. But that’s in jeopardy now.”We would relocate right now, but if we cannot start production there (at Savar), then what is the point of doing all these?” he asked. The Industries Ministry earlier extended the deadline several times, with warning to go tough against the errant tanners recently considering environmental damage.”As per the instruction of the Industries Ministry, we have set up check posts at four entry points of Hazaribagh so that no one can bring rawhides to the tannery,” Mir Alimuzzaman, said officer-in-charge of Hazaribagh police.”We sent back two trucks carrying rawhide as they were trying to enter Hazaribagh area through the Beribandh entry point near Gabtoli,” he said.The surveillance would continue until further instruction from the government, the OC said. “Not a single rawhide will be allowed to enter Hazaribagh. But the factory owners can transport the finished goods and other products,” he said.It has allocated plots to 155 tannery owners through Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC) at the industrial park established on a 200-acre land in Savar.
