The Supreme Court stays till July 17 a High Court order that had ordered 154 tanners of Dhaka’s Hazaribagh area to pay Tk 50,000 per day each in compensation for damaging the environment.

The High Court directed the industries secretary to submit before it by June 13 the list of names of the businessmen who are still running their tanneries at Hazaribagh in Dhaka.

The latest deadline for relocating tanneries from Hazaribagh to Savar is just three days away and in all likelihood, most of the tanners are going to miss the deadline again.

Tanners can bring in rawhides and skins to their factories of Hazaribagh until April 10, as a government wing yesterday relaxed a directive banning rawhides to the tanneries there.

Rawhides are piling up at Posta in the capital's Lalbagh and the traders are left in the lurch, thanks to the government move to prevent raw hides from reaching the tanneries in Hazaribagh.

Police are trying to curb rawhide supply into the tannery factories at Hazaribagh as tanners, once again, ignore government's latest deadline.

Government decides that raw hide will not be allowed in the tanneries at Hazaribagh in Dhaka from April 1 in order to force the tanneries to relocate out of the capital.

The industries minister issues instructions to close down tanneries which will fail to relocate from Hazaribagh to Savar in 72 hours. Allocation of plots in Savar industrial park will also be cancelled in such cases, according to the instructions.

Although many tanneries located in Hazaribagh have been taking preparations to relocate to Savar, the High Court has issued a contempt ruling against ten factories for non-compliance.

The High Court issued a contempt rule against 10 tannery owners over charges of creating bars to implement a previous judgment regarding salvation of Buriganga river.