The Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC) will recommend the government, if necessary, to extend the deadline by seven days for shifting tanneries to Savar Tannery Industrial Estate, reports news agency UNB. The government, earlier, urged the owners of tanneries to move to Savar by 31 March warning them of blocking their entry to Hazaribagh.
BSCIC chairman M Hazrat Ali on Sunday told reporters about the time extension plan for the relocation of the tanneries to Savar. All the infrastructure facilities have been made available at the Savar Tannery Industrial Estate, according to a BSCIC press statement.
Tannery owners can avail themselves of utility services electricity, gas and water supply - from the new Tannery Industrial Estate, it said. Installation of the Central Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP), Sewage Treatment Plant, Sludge Powder Generation System and Solid Waste Management System has already been completed in the new location. The BSCIC said shifting all the tanneries to Savar Industrial Estate is a must to make the CETP operational. It claimed that all the necessary supports have been extended to the tanners for their relocation to Savar.
Even, Tk 60 crore from the approved Tk 250 crore, have been given to the owners as compensation, the BSCIC chairman said. The rest of the compensation amount will be given in light of prescribed policy if the owners fulfill the conditions, he added.
The BSCIC chairman said they will provide all necessary supports after making their tannery units operational in the Savar Industrial Estate. Earlier at a function in the city on Sunday, industries minister Amir Hossain Amu said the leather industries must be shifted to their new location in Savar immediately. “We can’t allow leather industries to be there (at Hazaribahh) anymore, endangering the lives of crores of people. We can’t allow crores of people to die because of them,” he said. The minister was addressing the inaugural function of the 4th Nation SME Fair at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in the city. Amu said the site in the new leather estate in Savar is fully ready to provide all kinds of facilities, like gas and electricity, to the tanneries. He harshly criticised some newspapers for siding with the leather industry owners. "These newspapers once were against the leather industries, as those are causing pollution to the Buriganga river. But now what has happened to them! They’re now highlighting that rawhides are getting perished!” he asked. Amu said these tanneries have been contaminating the Buriganga river for decades. "Millions of people have been the victims of this industrial pollution, but these newspapers had never showed the pictures of these victims," he said.
Source: http://en.prothom-alo.com/bangladesh/news/100417/BSCIC-wants-seven-days-more-for-tannery-relocation