High-power panel for RMG safety

The Cabinet on Monday constituted a high-power committee, involving two Ministers, to review infrastructure and safety measures in the readymade garment factories across the country to prevent any recurrence of the Rana Plaza collapse.

The decision to form the committee was taken at the regular weekly meeting of the Cabinet held at the Secretariat with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.

Briefing reporters after the meeting, Cabinet Secretary M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan said the Cabinet in its previous meeting on April 29 decided to form the committee, headed by a State Minister, to physically review the infrastructure and safety measures in garment units.

But the Cabinet at Monday’s meeting decided to involve a Minister and a junior minister in the committee.

Jute and Textile Minister Abdul Latif Siddique has been made the Chairman of the committee while State Minister for Labour and Employment Monnojan Sufian the Co-chairman.

The Committee will have to submit its findings within three months to the cabinet committee on the garment industry, after physically reviewing the infrastructures and other safety measures in the garment units across the country.

The panel will also put forward its recommendations to the existing cabinet committee on garment sector.

Cabinet Secretary Bhuiyan said that a gazette notification has been issued to this effect in the afternoon.

The other members of the committee would be drawn from the Ministry of Home, Labour and Employment, Disaster Management and Relief, Textiles and Jute, Housing and Public Works, Defense, Commerce, Industries and Environment and Forests Ministries. Representatives from Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) and Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) too will be included in the committee.