Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina addresses a function, marking the National Legal Aid Day, at Osmani Memoraial Auditorium in the city on Sunday.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday said the government will constitute a separate cell to ensure legal aid to the workers.
The cell will work alongside existing Legal Aid Service, she said while addressing a function, marking the National Legal Aid Day, at Osmani Memoraial Auditorium in the city.
Hasina said that her government had undertaken necessary measures including enacting the Legal Aid Services Act, 2000 to ensure the access of the helpless, poor and underprivileged people to justice.
Making a fervent appeal to all to refrain from any type of agitation, violence and hartal during the time of ‘this national crisis’, she said: “This is not the time for agitation and hartal… it is the time to stand beside other people. Vandalism on the streets is not acceptable.”
The prime minister mentioned that her government has been working relentlessly to “bring the rich and poor at the same level” by removing social disparity.
Besides, National Human Rights Commission has also been established to safeguard people’s interest, she said.
Hasina said rule of law and democracy are complementary. Rule of law can not be established in the absence of democracy while democracy cannot be sustainable unless there is rule of law.
As part of its efforts for the establishment of rule of law, she mentioned that the present government has undertaken administrative initiatives apart from judicial reforms to reduce case backlog and delay in disposing cases.
To give a concrete shape to the separation of judiciary, she said that her government passed the Code of Criminal Procedure (Amendment) Act, 2009 in the first session of the current parliament.
The prime minister said the trial against the war criminals and crimes against humanity is underway in the International Crimes Tribunals with skilled judges from the higher and lower courts and it would certainly be completed in the soil of Bangladesh.
Referring to the disaster of Savar building collapse, she reiterated that those responsible for the tragedy will certainly be brought under the purview of the law at any cost whatever might be their political identity.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Friday ordered immediate arrest of Sohel Rana, the owner of ‘Rana Plaza’, along with the owners of five garment factories that were housed in the building which collapsed Wednesday morning leaving over 350 people killed.
Earlier on Thursday, the prime minister informed Parliament that the government will find out the garment factory owners who had forced the workers to enter into the Rana Plaza knowing that the building was in grave danger.
These factories are Ether Tex Ltd., New Wave Bottoms Ltd, New Wave Style Ltd, Phantom Apparels Ltd, and Phantom Tac Ltd.
The building, ‘Rana Plaza’, which developed cracks on Tuesday morning, collapsed all of a sudden with a big bang around 9:00 am on Wednesday.
Hasina said her government put top priority on ensuring proper treatment and rehabilitation of the injured workers.
She said that she has also made arrangements for jobs for about 1000 workers and sought cooperation of all to extend cooperation to families of those killed and injured in the Savar tragedy.
Presided over by Law Minister Barrister Shafique Ahmed, the function was also addressed, among others, by State Minister for Law Advocate Qamrul Islam and UN Resident Coordinator in Bangladesh Neal Walker.
Earlier, one minute’s silence was observed in memory of the victims of Savar building collapse tragedy.
Source: The Daily Star
