Home ›› 12 Jun 2022 ›› Governance
Cross-section of people at a virtual discussion said the disaster at the BM Container Depot in Chattogram was nothing but an instance of structural murder.
They also accused the depot owners of indulging in absolute negligence in necessary precautions to tackle such a disaster and refraining from providing the government agencies with actual information.
They came up with the observations at a webinar on Saturday titled “Shitakunda fire incident a structural murder: Citizens’ protest and reaction” organised by rights group Nagarik with its convener CR Abrar in the chair.
Jahangirngar University professor of economics Anu Muhammad, rights defender and researcher Rezaur Rahman Lenin, physician Harun ur Rashid, Barrister Abdul Halim, Ganosanghati Andolan coordinator for Chattogram Hasan Maruf Rumi, and researcher Maha Mirza spoke at the webinar moderated by jurist Jyotirmoy Barua.
Rezaur Rahman Lenin said that after the Sitakunda disaster, any of the owners of the container depot is yet to visit the place. “Even the law enforcement agencies did not file any case against the depot owners. But they accused Nurul Akter, Khaledur Rahman and many others who suffered from severe injuries due to fire,” he said.
Anu Muhammad said, “Lack of inspection paves the way for the owners to continue operation keeping the workers unsafe.
Laying stress on strengthening the capacity of the fire service and increasing the number of factory inspectors, he said the number of inspectors is now kept at a ‘joking’ level and the government does not consider labour inspection an important sector at all.
He said the government should not compensate the victims with public money but compensate them with the owners’ money. Anu called for bringing the depot owners and government officials concerned to book and initiating a transparent probe into the disaster.
Hassan Maruf Rumi questioned the management of medical treatment of the victims. “The medical authorities were busy treating the burns but they did not care about the eye problems the victims were complaining about.”
Maha Mirza said, “If the government responded to past recommendations of probe bodies formed after several industrial digesters and brought the culprits to book, such disasters could be reduced.”
Dr Harun ur Rashid said when he visited BM depot after three days of fire and asked the firefighter why it takes a long time to douse the flame, they replied that the owners did not provide proper information about things storied in the containers and this is why they needed to take more time.
“Fire service officials told us that if the owner provided theme proper information such as they stocked chemical, they could remain more aware and able to avoid causalities,” Rashid added.
