Our heartfelt tribute to them for their dedicated service

April 24th 2013 will go down in our history as a tragic day when a building named Rana Plaza in Savar in the outskirts of Dhaka city collapsed killing over thousand people and injuring another 2438. The eight-storied building housed shopping centre, bank, garment factories and other commercial establishments. It is estimated that on an average day about four thousand people used to work in the building. The latest available information at the time of writing this article on 12th May evening is that 1117 dead bodies have been recovered and 2438 have been rescued alive. Quite a few are still not accounted for. Amongst the rescued perhaps a few more may have succumbed to their injuries and over hundred have become permanently disable.

This makes the incident worst industrial tragedy only second to the Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal, India. We express our profound grief and sorrow for the loss of lives; and our thoughts and prayers are with the bereaved families. We also pray for the recovery of the injured.

In today’s world of technological advances such an incident should not have happened. It is now for the government to find those responsible for lapses, omissions and negligence and bring them to justice so that it becomes a good deterrent. We failed to stop the incident but we must not fail to learn lessons so that similar disasters never happen again. For this we have to conduct a post-mortem of the incident and analyse them from every possible angle. What we so far know is that the building is owned by one Sohail Rana, a local thug and a leader of the youth wing of the ruling Awami League (AL). About a decade and a half ago he was a poor man and used to sell mustard oil in the locality for survival.

As per newspaper reports, Rana then organised his own underworld gang with illegal firearms and grabbed the waste land belonging to a local Hindu gentleman named Robindranath Saha. It all happened under very active patronage of local MP Mr. Murad Jang of AL. He subsequently took a big loan from the bank and built this multi-storied building. He originally had plan permission for a four-storey building but extended its height to an eight-storied structure without any further permission or approval.

It is also known that the building developed a crack which was apparent by 23rd April and the local authority ordered the building vacated for reason of safety. The BRAC bank had a branch located in the building and they evacuated immediately. But Rana compelled the four garment factory owners to keep their factories open who in turn threatened the workers that they would lose their jobs unless they continued to work. Rana also planned to organise a rally in the afternoon with the garment workers to counter the hartal (strike) called by opposition parties. The rally never took place as the building collapsed hours before the planned rally.

If we analyse the facts the following questions come up:

How is it possible for a person to become so rich in a matter of years when ACC or NBR know nothing about the assets of this person or his source of earning? Why did our judicial system fail to provide help and protection to Robindranath Saha? How did the local law enforcement agencies allow Rana, allegedly an illegal drugs trafficker, to continue with his unlawful activities?

Why did a responsible MP provide the goon all the patronage? Why local authority did not notice such a huge building for which they never approved a plan? Why could not the local authority enforce “out of bound” from a cracked building already considered unsafe? Why did not the factory owners close or shift their establishments from the unsafe building?

Now let us analyse some of the statements by responsible persons.

The prime minister said that Rana had nothing to do with her party even when several party banners were seen with the photograph of Rana that were printed in the major Bengali and English newspapers. The prime minister then said that local authority had already vacated the building and it was only a few who went back to collect their belongings. It is a known fact that garment workers are never allowed to keep any personal belongings at their workplace.

The Home Minister came with a brilliant idea known as the law of horizontal gravitational force. Awami League presidium member Mohammad Nasim criticized home minister M K Alamgir for his ‘irresponsible’ remarks about Rana Plaza collapse at Savar. In a recent interview with BBC, the home minister said the commercial building Rana Plaza collapsed as hartal supporters jolted it, sparking widespread criticism from the people. “Honourable home minister, what you told BBC about Savar tragedy is nothing but a joke. Please, investigate the incident avoiding such comments,” Nasim, said pointing at MK Alamgir. Nasim, also former minister, said that the irresponsible remarks of some ministers and officials have put the government in an embarrassing situation. Nasim urged the government to bring Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) of Savar to book saying he is responsible the tragic incident. “How the UNO can still remain in service,” he posed a question to the authorities concerned.

It is reported that the Finance Minister while on an official visit to India termed this national tragedy as a minor incident.

Now we shall look into certain other matters. According to a newspaper report both Rajuk and Savar municipality both claimed to be the assigned administrative authority for approval of plans for such construction. This cannot be the case. The government must clearly define jurisdiction of each authority. Let not people continue to take advantage of such confusion.

The government said to have refused to accept the offer of humanitarian services by some of the friendly countries. We did not have enough experience of such disaster management and we should have accepted such offer of search and rescue. We could have the control and command with us and still allow them to offer guidance and advice. I could not find any logic for the government action. The government is also said to have refused visa to foreign journalists to cover the incident, as CNN anchor Amanpour said. Again the question is why?

I shall now talk about the interview of our prime minister by CNN. Instead of answering the questions the PM continued to make her own statements. In Bangladesh it is possible to tell people what one likes but one cannot do that with an international TV channel.

The government should engage different agencies as appropriate to find answers to all the questions raised in this article and punish all those criminally responsible for the tragic incident. This will reduce chances of similar accidents in future and will bring at least some comfort to the bereaved families. All affected families should also be suitably compensated; and the process has started. The BGMEA must not forget its responsibility.

Through this article I would like to pay tributes to our Army, Fire Service, Red Crescent, Police and so many other volunteers for their dedicated service that enabled us to save so many lives.

At this moment I remember “Kaikobad” who made the supreme sacrifice giving his life while trying to save lives. May Allah grant him Divine blessing in Heaven. The people of Savar also deserve all the admiration for their support during the search and rescue operation. The services rendered by Enam Medical College Hospital, its owners, staff members and students will be long remembered.

We are aware of so many incidents of fire and death in the garment factories in Bangladesh. Poor arrangements of fire protection, prevention and extinction are mostly to be blamed. But keeping the main escape door locked has always been the reason for high number of deaths.

Till today I have not heard anyone being found responsible and punished for keeping the door locked. Every industrial unit must have its own employees’ union or association and their representatives must work together with the owners to ensure better and safer work place and working conditions. They in turn may have on national level unions for garment industries as other industries may also have similar organizations. What we do not want is Sramik League or Sramik Dal. We want organization of workers by genuine workers to work for betterment of the working class, society, industry and the nation.