High Court orders closure of toxic poultry feed production plants

The High Court has directed the government to shut down the plants that use toxic tannery waste to produce poultry feed.

It also instructed secretaries to five ministries and police chief to file a report in a month after taking legal actions against those who produce poultry feed by using tannery wastes.

A bench of Justice Moinul Islam Chowdhury and Justice Md Ashraful Kamal passed the orders on Tuesday after hearing a supplementary petition filed by the Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh.

Lawyer Manzill Murshid represented the petitioners at the hearing. Deputy Attorney General Ikramul Haque Tutul argued for the state.

On July 21, 2011, the High Court had ordered shutting down within a month the plants that were using toxic tannery wastes to produce poultry feed.

But a daily newspaper published a report on Mar 25 tilted “Court's verdict ignored: Fish and chicken feed production using toxic tannery waste continues”. 

As the case was pending in the court, a supplementary petition with the report was filed on Sunday, said Murshid.

“After the verdict in 2016, RAB closed all the poultry feed producing factories at Hazaribagh. Now they have started again in Savar. But the verdict directed the six defendants (five secretaries and police chief) that they would close all the factories. As the toxic feed was being produced in Savar, they were show-caused."

As they did not work in accordance with the orders of the High Court, it issued a rule asking why the contempt of court charges against the six would not be brought against him.

The industries, commerce, food, health, fisheries and animal resources secretaries and inspector general of police had been asked to respond to the rule by Apr 9.

Following the verdict in 2016, the High Court rejected a petition, filed by Golam Sarwar, general secretary of the Bangladesh Fish, Meat and Animal Food Manufacturing Multipurpose Cooperative Society, for permission to challenge the verdict.

In December 2017, the Supreme Court had dismissed an appeal upholding the High Court judgment on the petition.