Substandard fodder producers to be dealt with

UNB, Dhaka :State Minister for Fisheries and Livestock Narayan Chandra Chanda on Tuesday warned that legal action will be taken soon against the unregistered factories producing substandard fodder.He issued the warning while addressing a discussion titled, ‘Tannery Waste in Poultry Feed: Means & Remedies’, organised by the Feed Industries Association of Bangladesh (FIAB) and Bangladesh Poultry Industries Coordination Committee (BPICC) at the Jatiya Press Club in the capital.Narayan Chandra said the fodder producers who are involved in mixing toxic chemicals in the poultry feeds will be punished. “The feed producers must take registration prior to going into operation or face legal action.”The government will take steps to investigate how tannery waste goes out of tanneries and where those are being mixed with poultry feeds, the junior minister said.FIAB president Mashiur Rahman said a quarter of greedy traders is producing an essential ingredient of poultry feeds-‘meat and bone meal’-using tannery wastes, which is harmful to both poultry and human health.He said the frauds collect the waste from city’s Hazaribagh area as tannery owners do not dispose those in compliance with the environmental rules.Bangladesh Supreme Court lawyer Emdad Hasan said as per the Bangladesh Environment Conservation Act, 1995 and the Environment Court Act, 2000, all the tanneries must have effluent treatment plants (ETPs), but most of the tanneries have not yet installed ETPs