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Published : 06 Apr 2023, 11:37 PM
State Minister for Disaster Management and Relief Enamur Rahman has said the traders of Bangabazar did not heed warnings about the risks of fire at the dilapidated marketplace.
He said the traders were given notices multiple times, and they ignored all of them. The authorities could not renovate the marketplace amid a court stay order either.
The biggest clothing marketplace in the country went up in a devastating fire on Apr 4. It took 48 units of the fire service six hours to douse the flames, but by then, the marketplace, which consisted of Bangabazar Market, Mahanagar Plaza, Adarsha Market and Gulistan Market, was reduced to ashes.
Several buildings in the locality, including Anexco Tower, were also damaged in the blaze that burnt down around 5,000 shops when the stores were preparing to sell clothes worth millions of taka before Eid-ul-Fitr.
Speaking in parliament on Thursday, Enamur brought up the history of Bangabazar. He said the city corporation received 1.697 acres of land from Bangladesh Railway in 1985 and built Bangabazar there.
The market association then constructed the Bangabazar Complex at their own expense in 1995. In 2016, the government employed a consultant firm to construct a multi-storeyed building there.
The construction of a 10-floor steel-structured complex with nearly 4,500 shops and a parking space for over 140 cars on the 67,332 square feet land was approved. The work was supposed to begin in June 2019.
The city corporation sent a letter to the shop owners’ association, asking them to vacate Bangabazar within a month.
The High Court then ordered a stay on the letter's effectiveness after hearing petitions filed by the traders. The stay order is still in effect.
Highlighting the poor state of Bangabazar, Enamur said the authorities had sent the market association six letters since November 2016 asking them to vacate the structure.
The Fire Service and Civil Defence labelled the building “risky” in April 2019 but the traders’ association never took any steps, ignoring all the notices, he said.
The traders sat with the authorities to exchange views at the fire service headquarters many times. The fire service also met the traders at their Bangabazar office to ask them to comply, delivering a total of 10 notices, but to no end, Enamur said.
Enamur also described steps taken by different government agencies after the blaze.
He said three investigation committees were formed over the incident by DSCC, fire service and police to determine the damage, make a list of victims and identify the real cause of the fire.
In an unscheduled discussion after Enamur’s statement, Jatiya Party MPs Kazi Firoz Rashid and Peer Fazlur Rahman criticised the government for its 'failure' to prevent the fire at Bangabazar.
The state minister for disaster management and relief “boasted” about the steps by government agencies, the Awami League and its affiliates to douse the fire, Rashid said. “Actually, the fire is still burning today. Not a single shop could be saved despite all the efforts.”
He alleged the efforts to douse the fire were meant to show off. “Why don’t you admit to the failure to prevent looting after the fire. It’s like – the treatment was good, but the patient died.”
Fazlur said devastating and deadly fire incidents were occurring very often, but Bangladesh still has little or no preparations to tackle them.
“The shopping malls and other buildings in Dhaka were built in such an unplanned way that it is difficult to extinguish fire,” he said, recalling the deaths of dozens of residents and workers in the 2019 Chawkbazar fire in Old Dhaka.
“Chemical warehouses are still there in Old Dhaka. There are no visible steps to prevent such incidents. The people, who are supposed to monitor these issues, are not doing their job. The city corporation cannot evade responsibility for the Bangabazar fire,” he said.
