Storing Chemicals
5 warehouses fined, asked to shift
Two mobile courts yesterday fined five warehouses Tk 9.4 lakh for storing inflammable chemicals at Tipu Sultan Road, Lalbagh and Bangabandhu Avenue in the city without obtaining licence from the fire brigade.
The courts realised the fine instantly and ordered the owners to shift their warehouses from residential areas to a safer place.
One court led by Mohammad Al Amin, an executive magistrate of Dhaka district administration, launched the drive against illegal storage of chemicals in Old Dhaka around 12:00 noon.
The court, teamed up by members of Rab and fire service officials, found a warehouse of around ten thousand chemical containers at HR Corporation on Tipu Sultan Road and fined its owner Tk 5 lakh for operating without licence.
The court also realised an undertaking from its owner to move the store within seven days.
Fire service officials said the recovered chemicals are used for dying and are not blacklisted for storing in residential areas.
Following the devastating fire at Nimtoli on June 3 this year, which killed at least 121 people, the government banned storing of 20 types of combustible chemicals in the capital’s residential areas, and asked the traders to move such stores to safer places within September 30.
The drive comes, as many chemical traders are still operating flouting the government order.
However, the magistrate said the owners have started shifting them since the drive began on October 3. He also urged the traders to remove the stores given their social responsibility.
SK Traders and Chemi Colours Limited on Bangabandhu Avenue are the two other factories that have been fined Tk 2 lakh each. They, too, were operating without licence.
Upon undertaking, the court gave them 15 days to shift their stores.
Some three hundred containers of combustible chemicals, used mostly for dying, were recovered from these two stores, fire service officials said.
Another mobile court headed by magistrate Anwar Pasha led the drive in Lalbagh and fined two warehouses — Ripon Perfumery and Shipa Traders — Tk 20,000 each for operating without licence. The court also ordered the owners to move their stores out of the residential area.
Mohammad Al Amin, who led the drive at Tipu Sultan Road and Bangabandhu Avenue, said fire service authority will file regular cases against the owners if they fail to move their stores within the deadline set by the court.
The drive against illegal storage of chemicals will continue, said Zahurul Alam, assistant director of fire service and civil defence. He, however, did not give the next date of the drive.
