The High Court yesterday directed 154 Hazaribagh tannery owners to pay the government Tk 30.85 crore as fine within two weeks for polluting the environment and failing to relocate their factories to Savar Tannery Industrial Estate.

In July last year, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court ordered that every tannery owner must pay Tk 10,000 a day for damaging and polluting the environment in the area and also ordered the owners to shift their businesses to Savar.

During the hearing of a contempt petition yesterday, the HC bench of Justice Md Ashfaqul Islam and Justice Ashish Ranjan Das said the tannery owners would face serious consequences if they did not deposit the due compensation into the state funds, complying with its directives.

Industries Secretary Mosharraf Hossain

Bhuiyan appeared before the HC on February 13 as per its January 25 order and informed the court that the tannery owners had not paid the money although the government had issued a notice asking them to pay that.

On March 1, the industries secretary submitted a report to the HC, saying that owners of 154 tanneries, which are operating in the capital's Hazaribagh in violation of the SC order, had not paid Tk 30.85 crore in compensation for damaging and polluting the environment since August last year to February 15 this year.

Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh filed the contempt petition with the HC against the tannery owners for not paying the compensation.

The rights body's lawyer Manzill Murshid yesterday sought the HC's directives in this regard.

Following the petition, the HC on January 25 summoned the industries secretary to appear before it on February 13 for giving an explanation over collecting compensation from the tannery owners at Hazaribagh.

Manzill told The Daily Star yesterday that the HC in June last year directed each of the tanners to give a daily compensation ofTk 50,000 for harming the environment.

Later, the tannery owners moved to the Appellate Division against the order. The amount was later revised to Tk 10,000, he said.

On August 22 last year, the industries secretary submitted a report to the HC, saying that 98 tannery owners out of 154 deposited Tk 55.9 lakh with the national exchequer as compensation for polluting the environment from August 11 to 16 last year.