Dilip castigates Amu for failure to relocate chemical warehouses
Former industries minister Dilip Barua has blamed his successor and immediate past industries minister Amir Hossain Amu for failing to relocate the chemical warehouses from Old Dhaka.
“Had he taken the issue seriously, it would have been easy to relocate the chemical godowns from Puran (Old) Dhaka,” said Barua after visiting the Chawkbazar area with a delegation of the ruling Awami League-led 14 party alliance.
Barua, also general secretary of Bangladesher Samyabadi Dal, was industries minister during the Nimtoli fire which claimed more than 120 lives in 2010.
He said that they had taken a decision to relocate chemical business to a place outside Dhaka.
“During my tenure as minister, Chemical Merchant Association and Bangladesh Small and College Industries Corporation (BSCIC) took a joint decision to relocate chemical business to a place outside Dhaka. This was our pledge. But the initiative came to a halt due to some discreet issues.”
Barua also blamed house owners who rent godowns for making quick bucks and hide it.
He urged the home ministry and the city corporation authorities to be tough in allowing chemical warehouses.
The government is being criticised for failing to relocate the chemical warehouses from Old Dhaka after a massive fire took at least 67 lives in Chawkbazar area on Wednesday night.
The Chawkbazar fire, which was reportedly stoked by presence of chemical substances, is the second deadliest chemical-fuelled fire in the country after the 2010 Nimtoli incident.
