Relocate tanneries to Savar: JS body

The Department of Environment (DoE) was yesterday asked to take necessary measures to relocate all tanneries to Savar from the capital's Hazaribag immediately.
The parliamentary standing committee on the environment and forest ministry also asked the authorities, if necessary, to apply force in relocating the tanneries.
“We have asked both the ministry and environment directorate to serve a final notice on the factory owners, and if the owners fail to relocate their factories on their own, then the authorities should forcibly relocate those,” Abdul Momin Talukder, chief of the committee, told The Daily Star after a meeting at Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban.
“All necessary activities are almost complete for tannery owners to relocate their factories in Savar. But they are not paying heed to government's repeated request to this end,” he said.
Talukder, also a BNP lawmaker, said the environment ministry has served several notices on the tannery owners to relocate their factories in Savar but to no avail.
All activities except for setting up a central effluent treatment plant are complete. Work is going on to set up the ETP, he said.
The High Court earlier asked the government to take steps to relocate tanneries outside the capital within 2009.
The HC later fixed April 2012 to relocate the factories.