Ten of the 16 garment factories that had been closed on safety grounds after the April 24 Rana Plaza collapse at Savar resumed their operations on Thursday.
The textile and jute minister Abdul Latif Siddique told New Age that the cabinet committee on readymade garment industry had shut 16 apparel factories in Dhaka but some of them started their production from Thursday as the factory owners collected risk-free certificates from the expert engineers who inspected the buildings.
Labour Ministry secretary Mikail Shipar said that after shutting the apparel factories, owners had been asked to collect certificates from the experts of RAJUK, BUET and the department of public works.
Ten out of 16 owners have so far collected the certificates from the relevant authorities who inspected the factory buildings and the government has given them permission to resume their production, he said.
The labour secretary said the owners who will fail to collect the certificates will not be allowed to open their factories and they will have to pay their workers till reopening of the factories after repairing the buildings.
He also said that the industrial police had served them a list of 30 vulnerable factories and the government team had closed the 16 factories after inspection.
Shipar said that four more factories remained closed in chittagong on safety grounds.
The textile minister on Wednesday said that two task forces – one led by additional secretary of the labour ministry and the other by additional secretary of the commerce ministry – have been instituted to look after the overall safety and compliance issues of the export-oriented apparel factories.
The task forces have been asked to visit all RMG units in the country to inspect their working conditions and safety standards.
-With New Age input
