Govt extends relocation deadline amid pressure

Old town chemical warehouses
Govt extends relocation deadline amid pressure
The government has stepped back from its rigid stand on not extending the deadline for the relocation of warehouses of inflammable and risky chemicals from Old Town of Dhaka in amid pressure from chemical traders and business groups.
The industries minister, Dilip Barua, while addressing a meeting with the chemical traders on Tuesday, announced September 30 as the new deadline for moving the chemicals warehouses.
The industries ministry and the Bangladesh Chamber of Industries organised the meeting at the National Productivity Organisation at the industries ministry.
Relocation of the chemical warehouses from Old Town came into consideration when inflammable chemicals were made primarily responsible for the quick spreading of the Nimtali fire on June 3 which claimed no less than 123 lives.
Following the tragedy, the government decided on June 6 to move the chemical warehouses, stores and factories outside the crowded residential areas and formed a high-level taskforce to launch a drive against them. But the task force drives in Old Town were called off on June 17 for two months, amid hectic lobbying by the BCI.
Meanwhile, on August 3, the BCI along with the chemical traders of Old Town at a meeting pressed their demand to extend the deadline for shifting the warehouses.
Dilip Barua and the state minister for law, Quamrul Islam, at the meeting, however, firmly rejected the demand and warned that the government would not allow any act of buying time.
But the industries ministry on Tuesday climbed down from its previously stern position and extended the deadline by one-and-a-half month.
Announcing the extension of deadline, the minister said at Tuesday’s meeting that the taskforce that was formed to identify illegal factories and chemical stores in residential areas along with business representatives would visit the warehouses from September 20 to 30.
They would check whether the chemicals were being removed and necessary fire safety measures taken, said the minister.
He also requested the business people of Old Town to submit a list of suggestions by August 30. The government would take the proposals seriously and try to implement them, the minister assured.
‘We are ‘bound’ to address your difficulties,’ Dilip Barua said, ‘But we cannot do anything against people’s interest.’
‘The warehouses must be shifted by September 30. We have told them this is the last time. Traders and business leaders present at the meeting also agreed to go by the new deadline,’ the minister told New Age.
He also assured that shifting chemical warehouses would not find the same result like the tannery industries, which are supposed to be moved from Hajaribag in Dhaka to Savar, but the decision was not materialised yet as no ‘memorandum of understanding’ has been signed with the chemical traders.
The BCI president Shahedul Islam claimed that nearly 90 per cent of the risky chemical warehouses and stores have been relocated.
Justifying their demand for extending deadline, the BCI president told New Age that the traders would need more time to take necessary fire safety measures and shift the rest of the chemicals from Old Town.
‘We wanted the extension as most of the small traders do not even know which chemicals are dangerous that they should not store,’ he added.
However, on Monday, the day before the previous deadline on August 17, the local people claimed that they did not see any remarkable movement of stored materials and chemicals in the past two months.
‘Nobody moved their chemicals,’ claimed Selim, a rickshaw-puller of Mitford area. Everyone except the chemical traders wants the stores to be shifted to a safe place outside the crowded Old Town,’ he added.
The local people admitted the importance of chemicals for industries but also highlighted the risks of storing those in a crowded residential area. ‘We have witnessed a devastating fire at Nimtali. A more dangerous accident may occur anytime any where in the old town as nearly half of the buildings are used as factories or stores,’ said Aktarul Alam, salesman of a medicine shop near Armanian Street in Old Town.
‘We live in fear every moment,’ he said. ‘I think the government should punish the landlords as well as the traders,’ he added.
Most of the chemical traders however claimed they did not deal in any of the twenty ‘dangerous inflammable liquids’.
President of the Bangladesh Chemical and Perfumery Merchants’ Association, Mohammad Farooq, told New Age, ‘I shall go door to door to ensure relocation of warehouses and ensure installation of fire safety measures.’
Speaking at the meeting, the speakers also demanded to form an expert committee to build a separate ‘industrial zone’ for the chemical industry.
State minister for law Quamrul Islam, Member of Parliament for Lalbagh in old Dhaka Mostafa Jalal Mohiuddin and Deputy Commissioner of Dhaka Mahibul Haque were present at the meeting attended by chemical traders and business leaders.
Earlier in 2009, the department of explosives under the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources identified twenty chemicals as ‘dangerous flammable liquids’ including butanone, ethanol, methanol, toluene and xylene.
‘Most of the chemicals in the explosives department’s list are highly explosive and harmful to inhale,’ said Tajmeri SA Islam, chairperson of chemistry department at the Dhaka University
Apart from causing fire, leakage of the chemicals and their unsafe movement can create dangerous ‘chemical hazard’ in the densely populated areas, said Tajmeri who is also the Dean of Science Faculty of the university.

Courtesy of NewAge