‘No progress in long-term goals’

Although the short-term initiatives taken after the Rana Plaza incident have been implemented, there has been little progress in the mid- and long-term goals, a study has said.

Economic think tank Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), which published the report, said there were also inconsistencies in the lists of victims and people missing in that tragedy.

The study was published on Wednesday, a day before the anniversary of the disaster, at the city’s Brac Centre Inn.

“The government and other organisations have claimed they have compensated the Rana Plaza victims at various times, but the amount is very small for an individual victim,” CPD Additional Research Director KM Moazzem said. 

He said the payment of compensations had been sporadic and lacked consistency.

There were no specific guidelines about the payment of compensations, the report said, and added that buyers had not made any significant contributions.

“There is no consistency in medical treatment either. Many victims have not received complete treatment. Almost 700 children have been affected by the disaster; of them, 294 have not got any compensation at all,” the researcher said.

The report recommended steps including giving jobs to all survivors, fulfilment of all promised initiatives by the government and the owners, adoption long-term plans, and the strengthening the Fire Service and the labour ministry.

Former BGMEA president Shafiul Islam Mohiuddin said several big buyers had announced last December that they were withdrawing their investments from the country after production costs went up because of increased wages.

“A factory will need at least Tk 20 million to make the kind of improvements that Accord and Alliance want,” he said.

“Overall the owners are in a bad state.”

Workers’ leader Nazma Akhter protested his claims and said workers were not responsible for the Rana Plaza collapse.

Garments Workers’ Federation President Towhidur Rahman said the issue of missing workers needed to be resolved.