Staff Reporter :
In response to the High Court order, the Department of Environment (DoE) along with other concerned officials on Saturday started disconnecting utility services like gas, power and water supply lines, to the tanneries operating in the city’s Hazaribagh area.
Earlier on March 6, the High Court directed the government to immediately shut down the Hazaribagh tanneries and disconnect all of their utility services, as they missed several deadlines to relocate their factories to Savar.
A team led by DoE Director General Md Raisul Alam Mondul along with two officials from the Dhaka district and two magistrates from the department began the operation at around 10am.
“Surprisingly, their work was not disturbed,” Md Raisul Alam Mondul told The New Nation.
“As the work is not completed today, we will keep the operation continue until completing disconnection of all the connections. No one is stopping us and everyone involved is cooperating.”
Telephone lines to the tanneries were cut off on April 4.
On Mar 30 the Supreme Court ordered the tanneries to finish relocating their operations, before April 6. Tanneries owners have been reluctant, despite repeated orders to shift their tanneries to the leather industrial zone at Savar.Five DoE teams started their drives around 10am. We were ready to face any opposition, but no one comes in front to prevent the DoE’s activity, said Mir Alimuzzaman, Officer-in-Charge of Hazaribagh Police Station.
However, Chairman of Bangladesh Tanners Association Sahin Ahmed said that they did not let their fellow businesses to violate the court order, so they (DoE) did the disconnection work peacefully.
“We will now sit with the high ups of the government, so that we get justified time to relocate,” he added.
“As you know that the Tannery Estate in Savar is not yet ready to support our operation, we hope the government will realize the situation and give special consideration to our request,” Ahmed said.
“Leather and leather goods, the second largest export earning sector would face a big blow in the coming days if we are forced to shut our factories right now.”
However, according to media reports, authority of the Tannery Industrial Estate at Hemayetpur in Savar is yet to complete necessary construction works and utility connections there.
The reports also say that construction of the Central Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP) and its pipe network is yet to be completed. Setting up of power transformer and its necessary works were also not fully done.
Moreover, no factory could manage gas connection, a major utility to run a tannery till end of last month, although some 37 factories started their operation in the estate in a limited scale.
People running tanneries in the estate said they have been processing only wet blue hides using generator and deep tube well.
Besides, project authority till the end of last month was receiving waste water through alternative way.
Meanwhile, only 35 out of 155 tanneries have started operation in a limited scale in the new Tannery Estate ahead of the deadline set by the court.
