High Court orders Hazaribagh tanneries to pay Tk 50,000 a day for environment pollution

The High Court has ordered the 154 tanneries still operating at the capital’s Hazaribagh to pay Tk 50,000 each to the national exchequer a day in compensation for polluting the environment  until they shift to Savar.

Court CorrespondentSupreme bdnews24.com
Published : 16 June 2016, 10:39 AM
Updated : 16 June 2016, 03:33 PM

The bench of Syed Muhammad Dastagir Husain and AKM Shahidul Huq gave the ruling on Thursday.

The court assigned the secretary to the industries ministry to oversee if the money is being deposited ‘properly’.

He was asked to report to the court on the matter within July 17.

The court asked the secretary to the environment ministry to determine the damage the Hazaribagh tanneries are causing to the Burhiganga River every day.

He will also have to submit a report by July 17.

The High Court order came after the industries secretary submitted a list of tanneries still operating at Hazaribagh.
 
The court on Apr 12 had ordered submission of the list following a petition of rights and environmentalist organisation Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh.
 
Earlier in 2001, the High Court ordered the tanneries, which are polluting the Burhiganga, to relocate and in 2009 it gave them until Feb 24, 2010 to move to the Tannery Industrial Estate at Savar on the outskirts of Dhaka.
 
The court extended the deadline several times on petitions by the government.
 
The industries secretary report suggests that, of the 155 units at Hazaribagh, only the Unit-2 of Reliance Tannery has moved to Savar and 144 have started the shifting process.
 
But 10 units have taken no measures to move.