F R Chowdhury
It was on the 24th April 2013 that a building named “Rana Plaza” in Savar, Bangladesh collapsed killing over thousand people and injuring another 2438. The 9-storied building housed shopping centre, bank, garment factories and other commercial offices. It is estimated that on an average day near 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 Bhupal, 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 Mr. Sohail Rana. He is a local thug and a leader of the youth wing of the Bangladesh Awami League (BAL). There was a time when he was a poor man and he used to sell mustard oil in the locality to earn a living. He then organised his own ‘mastan’ gang with illegal fire-arms and grabbed the waste land belonging to a local Hindu Robindranath Saha. It all happened under very active patronage of local MP Mr. Murad Jang of BAL. He subsequently took a big loan from the bank and built this multi-storied building. He originally had a planning permission for a four storey building but extended it to its present size 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 shifted away immediately. However, Mr. 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. Mr. 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 days when ACC or NBR know nothing about the assets of this person or his source of earning? Why our judicial system failed to provide help and protection to Robindranath Saha? How the local law enforcement agencies allowed Rana to continue with his unlawful activities? Why a responsible MP provided all the patronage? Why local authority did not notice such a huge building for which they never approved a plan? Why the local authority could not enforce “out of bound” from a cracked building already considered unsafe? Why the factory owners did not 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 Mr. Rana had nothing to do with her party even when several party banners were seen with the photograph of Mr. Rana. 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. The prime minister should know that garment workers are not allowed to keep any personal belonging at workplace. People did not expect the prime minister to make such irresponsible statements.
The Home Minister came with a brilliant idea known as the law of horizontal gravitational force. He said that some of the striking workers had gathered near the main entrance and their movement may have resulted the building to collapse. The minister urgently needs medical help for his mental condition.
It is reported that the stupid Finance Minister while on an official visit to India termed this national tragedy as a minor incident.
The leader of the opposition said that Government removed lot of dead bodies away from the public eyes. I do not find any reason for the Government to do so. Besides by saying that she insulted all those engaged in search and rescue operation. People did not expect such cheap statement from her.
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 disasters 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 Government action. The Government also said to have refused visa to foreign journalists to cover the incident. Again the question is why? – Did we have something to hide?
I shall now talk about the interview of our prime minister by CNN. It was another disaster. We feel ashamed of the performance of our prime minister. Instead of answering the questions she continued to make her own statements. The more she tried to evade the matter, the more she got entangled in it. In Bangladesh it is possible to tell your people what you like but you 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.
Through this article I would like to pay tributes to our Army, Fire Service, Red Cross/ 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 with his life trying to save lives. May Allah grant him Jannat. 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 staff 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.
fazlu.chowdhury@btinternet.com
London, 12-May-2013