The Rana Plaza tragedy is a reflection of sheer negligence of all the stakeholders involved in the value chain of the readymade garments (RMG) sector in Bangladesh, and beyond, said an independent monitoring report on the Rana Plaza building collapse. The Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) released the report at a round-table conference at the city’s CIRDAP auditorium, to mark 100 days of the Rana Plaza tragedy, which, it said, has become a haunting example of gross negligence of workers’ safety in the global value chain.
The report termed the tragedy a symbol of poor compliance with regard to work place safety, and security in the country’s industrial sector.
Speakers at the conference identified non-implementation of rules of law, violation of building codes, and non-compliance of safety rules as the major reasons behind the tragic incident that left 1,132 dead, more than 2,000 injured and maimed many others.
“The collapse of the Rana Plaza building was neither a labour nor political problem. Rather, it was an outcome of bad governance,” MCCI former president Anis Ud Dowla said, adding that there are laws, but these are not being implemented because of the people like Sohel Rana.
Commerce minister GM Quader, who attended the meeting as the chief guest, agreed that the country was experiencing lack of good governance, which he termed as the root cause of all problems. He urged the civil society to be vigilant against the malpractices.
The minister sought cooperation from all to overcome the crisis. He, however, warned all concerned not to allow any new factories without fulfilling the compliance standards. Regarding trade union, the minister said that the parliament had passed the new labour law. The procedures for forming trade union have been made easier than earlier.
Former minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury urged the BGMEA to play a self-regulatory role besides the government to check irregularities and avert recurrence of any tragic incidents like Rana Plaza collapse. Heaping praise on those who took part in the rescue operations, he said the trust in the government has fallen drastically in recent days. “It is dangerous for the country,” said the former minister.
Replying to a speaker, he said the trend has changed. The politicians are now turning to businessmen. “How a man, doing politics all through his life, turns into a businessman overnight! This is not understandable,” questioned the lawmaker.
Presided over by CPD chairman Dr Rehman Sobhan, the conference was addressed among others by lawmakers Syeda Asifa Ashrafi Papiya MP and Apu Ukil MP, Dr Zafarullah Chowdhury, CPD’s distinguished fellow Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, BGMEA former president Shafiul Islam, and trade union leader Montu Ghosh.
Dr Khondaker Golam Moazzem, additional research director of the Centre for Policy Dialogue presented the monitoring report on 100 days of Rana Plaza Tragedy–a report on comments and delivery.
The speakers at the meeting also stressed the need of forming an independent committee to monitor the overall activities of rehabilitation of Rana Plaza victims, and all other compliance issues. They demanded to publish the exact number of missing workers of the Rana Plaza disaster and proper compensation to their families.
Courtesy of The Independent
