Law Letter
No more mourning days
Last week is gone, but it was harrowing for most of us. The collapse of eight-story building named, 'Rana Plaza' in Savar scoring over 350 deaths and many other with injuries. Among which most of them were garment workers as there were four garments placed in that building. When a casualty takes place, many questions arises, many problems are identified, media always remains full of talk-shows and news, and many promises are abjured. Blame game is amused; sometime the authorities in charge become too barmy to go off the rails. But most of the time the real victim remains behind the closed doors.
The respective authority did not perform their duty correctly, Rana Plaza construction started from land acquisition without soil testing and no earth filing and no proper guidelines were followed. As Rana Plaza was built on a pathway which was one of the traffic routes for which the owner of the Plaza had no permission to construct anything leave alone an eight story shopping cum factory complex. How an illegal establishment like that, was allowed for so long? Why Rajuk never put its oar in this matter so long?
Under section 81 and 86, 85 of the Labor Act-2006 there are provisions of giving notice to the employer of any dangerous building and machineries, and within three days the employer shall send the notice to inspector. After that, inspector should take immediate steps to justify the gravity of the situation including removal of danger or prohibiting the employment etc. Now the question is did the respective owner of the building and owners of the garments paid any attention heed to such danger? Did the inspector perform his duty correctly? Rather they induce people to enter upon it saying 'it is mere cracks' costing us so many lives.
The Bangladesh National Building Code (BNBC) was not followed in constructing that PLAZA. BNBC of 1993 came into effect with a gazette notification issued on November 15, 2006. It has been made obligatory to comply with in any building construction under the Building Construction Act. As per section 2.1 of chapter 2 of part 1 of the BNBC 1993 the Government is under obligation to establish a new or designate an existing agency responsible for the enforcement of this Code with a given area of jurisdiction. However, the Government is yet to set up any Code Enforcement Authority. Thus, absence of regulatory authority to care for all safety aspects of building need to be linked to Savar tragedy.
BGMEA Committed to protect the interests garments workers. BMGEA has set up a Crisis Management Committee for emergencies. But where is the committee. Where is the protection of garment workers?
We all scream for punishing the owner and increasing the punishment, but the problem is not in punishment , rather in the implementation of the same, as we have experienced earlier that none of the owners of the establishments in question (Tazreen, Spectrum, Rana Plaza) have been punished. The common man feels cheated when he finds that those making illegal and unauthorised constructions are supported by the people entrusted with the duty of preparing and executing master plan or development plan or zonal plan.
In famous case of Dipak Kumar Mukherjee v. Kolkata Mun.Corp.& Ors The bench shows its zero judicial tolerance for unauthorized constructions. Like BLAST v. BANGLADESH -2008 we need some more guidelines in respect of buildings in real dangerous situation.
It has become a norm bumping our voice up when an incident took place, we all know that accident cannot be avoided but at least it can be prevented with the guidance of intellectual heads of the country.
Shekh Md. Muhibbullah
Student of Law, University of Dhaka
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