Survivors still crying for compensation

Almost two years have passed since Rana Plaza collapsed on April 24 leaving 1,136 people dead and hundreds injured but the survivors and their families are still struggling to press home their demands for compensation and punishment for the accused.

The demonstrators under the banners of "Rana Plaza Garment Workers' Union" and "Garments Workers Front-GWF" yesterday formed a human chain on Dhaka-Aricha highway at Savar Bus stand, outside the capital.

Six months ago, Rana Plaza Claims Administration (RPCA) conducted an assessment, based on medical reports of the injured issued by the Centre for the Rehabilitation of the Paralysed, and fixed an amount for each injured worker.

But recently the RPCA informed many injured workers through letters that they will not get any financial aid from it as they already got the same amount, which the RPCA allocated for them, from the PM's fund, Ahmed Zibon, general secretary of GWF's Savar unit, said. Another injured, Nesar Uddin, said, "I got Tk 50,000 from PM's fund a long time ago which has already been spent for my treatment and my family."

Meanwhile, a convention on "Education Crisis Mitigation for Rana Plaza and Tazreen Fashions Victim Workers Children" was organised by Bangladesh Students' Union and Garment Workers' Trade Union Centre in Savar.

Bangladesh Students' Union presented a survey report, which was conducted on 324 children of the victims, which stated that 78.6 percent of the students were under 12 years, 2.3 percent of them had to leave schools due to financial crisis while 34 percent were bound to get involved with child labour.