Inquiry body for amending two laws

A committee looking into the BM Container Depot fire has called for amending the Dangerous Cargoes Act of 1953 and the Private Inland Container Depot (ICD) and Container Freight Station (CFS) Policy of 2016.

The committee, formed by the Cabinet Division, has recommended introducing provisions that would help avoid incidents like last month’s tragedy that killed more than 40 people last month.

Headed by Chattogram Additional Divisional Commissioner Mohammad Mizanur Rahman, the panel submitted its investigation report to Divisional Commissioner Md Ashraf Uddin on Wednesday.

In the report, the panel made about 20 recommendations to avoid such major accidents in the future. Bangladesh Inland Container Depots Association (BICDA) called the recommendations realistic.

Mizanur said while there was evidence of negligence on the part of BM depot owners and government officials, there are substantial deficiencies in the laws and policies that need to be corrected immediately.

To be precise, the Dangerous Cargoes Act is ineffective in the current context and is not in line with the International Maritime Dangerous Goods (IMDG) Code, he said. “We have recommended updating these laws.” In the report, they also recommended declaring the ICDs as port areas by amending the Private ICD and CFS Policy under which the depots operate, he added.

The 19-page probe report with an additional 259 pages of documents, which were prepared after questioning 24 people, blamed the BM depot authorities and concerned government departments for the June 4 accident.

On Thursday, the report was sent to the Cabinet Division from the Chattogram divisional commissioner’s office.

The other members of the probe committee include Professor Debashish Palit, chairman of the Chemistry Department at Chittagong University, CMP’s counter-terrorism unit Deputy Commissioner Farooq Ul Haq and CID’s Special Superintendent of Police Muhammad Shahnewaz Khaled.

The committee also recommended setting up separate ICDs to handle dangerous cargoes. According to the report, permissions from 25 government departments are required to operate ICDs. However, officials from only a handful of departments had visited or inspected the BM Container Depot.

In addition, the Dangerous Cargoes Act, in line with which ICDs handle dangerous cargoes, is not very effective, said the report. ICD officials know very little about the IMDG Code to follow it during the transportation and storage of hazardous goods. The IMDG Code is a large book of over 500 pages with many sections and sub-sections, said BICDA Secretary Ruhul Amin Sikder Biplob. “A policy for ICDs needs to be formulated in line with the IMDG Code’s guidelines for hazardous cargo transportation.”