TANNERY RELOCATION TO SAVAR : Govt may give compensation to tanners despite little dev works

The government is going to relax the conditions it set for disbursement of the 2nd instalment of the compensation package for relocation of tanneries from Hazaribagh to Savar, on the outskirts of Dhaka, paving the way for withdrawing money by tanners by showing limited amount of development work.
As per the existing rules, the tannery owners who have used the whole portion of land they got under the lay-out plan in building their factories and completed moulding of the 1st floor of their units and have started the foundation work with drums and machinery installation would be eligible for the 40 per cent of the fund in the second instalment.
The compensation rules set by the industries ministry also said that the tannery owners who had gathered construction materials and started construction under the lay-out plan would be eligible for the 20 per cent of compensation fund in the first instalment and 40 per cent of the fund would be disbursed in the third instalment after successful relocation of tanneries.
The Bangladesh Finished Leather, Leathergoods & Footwear Exporters Association has recently sent a letter to the chairman of Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation requesting it to relax the conditions set for distribution of the 2nd instalment of the compensation package.
The BFLFEA requested the BSCIC chairman to distribute the second instalment to the tanneries considering post-piling progress of factories and the third instalment considering the progress in instalment of drums at the units.
The BSCIC decided in principle to relax the conditions set for distribution of the 2nd instalment of the compensation package and sent a proposal to the industries ministry on Sunday.
In the proposal, BSCIC chairman Nurul Islam said some of the units completed partial moulding of the 1st floor of their units and applied for the second instalment of compensation but the existing rules did not permit such disbursement as the units were yet to use the whole portion of land they got under the lay-out plan in building their factories.
The BSCIC chairman said that the rules should be relaxed as the disbursement of the second instalment was going on a slow pace due to the existing rules.
He proposed allowing the units for the second instalment which have completed partial (50 per cent) moulding of the 1st floor of their units and started installation of drums and machinery at their factories.
The BSCIC chairman said that if the rules were not relaxed, the lion share of compensation fund under the annual development programme would remain unused.
‘We have decided to relax the rules for distribution of the 2nd instalment of the compensation package taking the request from tannery owners into consideration,’ Abdul Quayum, project director of Tannery Industrial Estate, told New Age on Tuesday.
He said that the BSCIC chairman sent the proposal to the industries secretary.
‘Once the proposal is approved by the ministry, the disbursement would be started as per the relaxed rules.’
Industries secretary Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan told New Age that the issue would be discussed at the industries ministry steering committee meeting to be held today.
‘Not only the rules relaxation issue but the next course of action regarding the relocation of tanneries will be discussed at the meeting as no tannery has so far promised us a certain date for relocation despite receiving legal notice,’ he said.
According to the industries ministry, the government-set committee estimated compensation amount at Tk 250 crore against relocation of 150 tanneries.
Of the Tk 250 crore, the government allocated Tk 209.56 crore for disbursement in the financial year 2015-16 under the annual development programme.
The BSCIC has so far distributed Tk 52.05 crore to 121 tanneries. All of them received the first instalment of the compensation package but only 20 of them got the first and second instalments.

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