SC upholds order to shut Hazaribagh tanneries

The Appellate division of the Supreme Court upheld a High Court order (HC) that directed the government to close all the tanneries in city's Hazaribagh.

The three-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha called off the petition filed by tannery owners.

Earlier on March 6, a HC bench of Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed and Justice Md Salim passed the order after a petition hearing filed by Bangladesh Environment Lawyers Association (BELA).

On July 18 last year, the Supreme Court has ordered each of the 154 tannery owners at Hazaribagh to pay the government Tk 10,000 per day as fine for not relocating their factories to the Tannery Estate in Savar within the given time.

The court also ordered the government to donate fifty percent of the fine to National Liver Foundation of Bangladesh.

On June 28, the court stayed the direction to 154 tannery owners at Hazaribagh, to pay the fine of Tk 50,000 each per day to the government as the Industries Ministry submitted a report to the HC mentioning that a total of 154 tanneries were yet to be shifted to the designated site in Savar, till  July 17.

On April 1, the government suspended rawhide supply to Hazaribagh tanneries as the tanners had failed to meet the March 31 deadline, the latest in a line of several such deadlines missed in the past.

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.