Submit Tazreen compensation report by July 28: HC

It also asks for DNA test report

 

The High Court on Sunday directed the Industries Ministry and BGMEA (Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association) to submit a repot before the court by July 28 on the compensation given to the victims of Tazreen Fashions fire.

The HC also directed them to mention how much compensation has been given to whom and under which process, and warned that steps will be taken against them if they fail to submit the report within the given time.

The HC bench of Justice Quazi Reza-Ul Hoque and Justice ABM Altab Hossain issued the directive asking Tazreen owner Delwar Hossain to reappear before it on the same day (July 28).

Delwar appeared before the bench this morning as per its June 19 order.

At least 112 people were killed and many others injured in a devastating fire at Tazreen Fashions Ltd in Ashulia on November 24 last year.

During the hearing, the court also asked the OC of Ashulia Police Station to submit the DNA tests of the unidentified 37 workers by the same deadline.

Authorities concerned of the government and Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) were supposed to submit the reports on compensation and DNA test on July 18, as per its June 19 order.

The bench, however, did not pass any order against Delwar because the report on compensation was not submitted before it.

Earlier, on June 11, a government body to probe the devastating fire has found ‘unpardonable neglect’ on the part of the owner but said the incident might have been ‘subversive’.

On May 19, the same bench asked the government to immediately arrest Tazreen owner Delwar Hossain and produce him before it.

The court had also issued a rule upon the government to explain in four weeks as to why it should not be directed to arrest the Tazreen owner for his alleged negligence in protecting the workers from the fire and also to explain its inaction after the fire incident.

The order and the rule came following a writ petition filed by three anthropologists — Nazneen Akhtar Banu, Syeda Gulrukh and Mahmudul Hassan Suman — seeking HC directives to arrest the owner of Tazreen Fashions in connection with the devastating fire at his RMG factory on November 24, 2012.

Barrister Jyotirmoy Barua, the counsel for the petitioners, said Delwar appeared before the court voluntarily on Thursday. The respondents neither produced him nor submitted the probe report before the High Court as per its directives.

Source: UNB Connect