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Rana Plaza Collapse (huge life losses)

We should rethink if we really need this kind of blood money...!!!

Thugs have no party actually. This Rana is AL cadre but his father is Bnp. You will see ppl like this in every
regions in BD. With the change of gov they will change their masks.Politicians just need their support badly.
So we cry or do anything nothing is gonna change. Unless there is a revolution.

সত্য কথা বললে এবার আমাকে পৃথিবীছাড়া হতে হ&#247
 
The dark underworld of Bangladesh's clothes industry


Bangladesh's clothes industry has created its own distinctive landscape on the northern edges of the capital Dhaka.

From the sprawl of one-room houses and shacks where workers live, scores of multi-storey factory blocks jut into the sky.

Clusters of steel-reinforcing rods poke from their rooftops - in the hope of adding yet another floor of sewing machines.


It's a sign of what critics say is a boom gone too far, in the desperation to feed the West's appetite for bargain clothes.

The Rana Plaza which collapsed this week was another of these high-rise stitching stations, with the UK's Primark chain one of its customers.

Primark has said that it was "shocked and saddened" by the disaster and that it would work with other retailers to review standards.

But everyone involved in the industry is in the frame now - because it's had plenty of warnings before.

It's less than six months since a devastating fire at a plant that was making clothes for Walmart killed over 100 workers - Bangladesh's last worst industrial accident.

There had been some efforts to tighten up.


Humayun Kabir, CEO of DIRD Ltd, which makes nearly 20 million garments a year for UK retailers including Tesco, Sainsbury's and Next, says his customers were already "much more vigilant", making frequent random inspections of his production facilities.

"No child labour" signs adorn the entrances to many factories, promising compliance with the official ban on under-18s in the garment trade.

It's not clear though whether inspectors have also been looking for cracks in factory buildings.

And there's a whole underworld to the garments industry largely untouched by any checks.

'Open secret'

Dozens of sweatshop operations have sprouted up across Dhaka over the past decade trying to profit from the cheap clothes boom.

The BBC saw several back-street operations with few fire or other safety precautions and with people who were clearly children working on the shop-floor.


One of these sweatshop factories had made clothes destined for the UK in recent months.

It's an open secret that many higher standard factories often sub-contract orders to these sweat-shops to keep costs down and meet customer's deadlines.

It could just be a few thousand buttons or zips sewn on. Then the clothes go back to the 'good' factory - and the buyers may never know.

When it emerged that the Tazreen plant had been making clothes for Walmart, the US giant said it had no knowledge of this.

Whether any of the factories inside the Rana Plaza complex were involved in such practices is not clear.

Western buyers have been accused of turning a blind eye in the past, because of their interest in holding prices down.

The Bangladeshi government says it wants to improve conditions but worries about the knock-on consequences for the millions who now depend on the industry for jobs.


"The biggest human right is the right for survival," said commerce minister Ghulam Mohammed Quader in an interview before the latest disaster.

That sounds hollow now, as hundreds of Bangladeshi families grieve.

After this catastrophe, there is a lot more reflection going on over the real cost of cheap clothes.

As one Bangladeshi union organiser told the BBC: "You buy one get one free - but it's not really free."

Andrew North

BBC News - The dark underworld of Bangladesh's clothes industry
 
Thugs have no party actually. This Rana is AL cadre but his father is Bnp. You will see ppl like this in every
regions in BD. With the change of gov they will change their masks.Politicians just need their support badly.
So we cry or do anything nothing is gonna change. Unless there is a revolution.

সত্য কথা বললে এবার আমাকে পৃথিবীছাড়া হতে হ÷

Good article....thanks for giving the link :tup: .
 
Thugs have no party actually. This Rana is AL cadre but his father is Bnp. You will see ppl like this in every
regions in BD. With the change of gov they will change their masks.Politicians just need their support badly.
So we cry or do anything nothing is gonna change. Unless there is a revolution.

সত্য কথা বললে এবার আমাকে পৃথিবীছাড়া হতে হ&#247

Immediate responsibility of this tragedy lies with the factory owners. People like Rana are abundant in BNP as well as in BAL. But it's evil to deny instances of their obvious and proven misuse of respective political allegiance. Corrupt practices of political parties and government offices are the root of all such incidents. Sadly people only see things that move and have a color.
 
one Tragic story: Rescue team was working to rescue a female worker (name Shahina) who was stuck more than 72 hrs. Rescue team and she with empty stomach were working to cut the bricks and they were almost close loose her. All of a sudden a civil engineer came to that spot and started working by himself to rescue her without understanding the situation and totally ignoring rescue team's protest. Suddenly set fire and all rescue members had to come out from the tunnel (had been created to rescue her)
quickly. She died on that fire. All injured rescue members stared crying after coming out the tunnel not because they were injured, because they did not able to save her (who was fighting to live over 72 hrs). :cry:

May Allah give her heaven. Ameen.
 
Bank accounts of Rana, wife frozen | The Daily Star

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MONDAY, APRIL 29, 2013
Bank accounts of Rana, wife frozen
Staff Correspondent


Bangladesh Bank yesterday froze the bank accounts of Rana Plaza owner Sohel Rana and his wife Mithu for one month following an order of the High Court. Earlier in the day, the HC directed the authorities concerned to freeze all the bank accounts of the owners of Rana Plaza and the garment factories housed in the building.

In response to a writ petition filed by two rights organisations, Ain O Salish Kendra, and Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust, the HC ordered the Bangladesh Bank to issue an immediate circular for commercial banks in this regard.

It said the due salaries and benefits of the workers would be paid from those accounts under the supervision of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association.

The HC bench of Justice Mirza Hussain Haider and Justice Muhammad Khurshid Alam Sarkar came up with the orders. ZI Khan Panna, Abu Obaidur Rahman argued for the petitioners.

Following another writ petition filed by three individuals on the day, the same bench ordered four high officials of the government including deputy inspector general of industrial police to appear before it on April 30 to explain their roles in connection with the building collapse.

The three other officials are: director of industrial police in Savar zone, upazila nirbahi officer of Savar and chief inspector of the factories under the ministry of labour.

The court asked the inspector general of police to submit a report before it within seven days on what legal steps the government had taken after the collapse of Spectrum building in 2005, Phoenix building in 2006, and fire in Tazreen Fashions Ltd in 2012.

It also issued a rule upon the authorities to explain in a week as to why they should not be directed to rehabilitate the victims of the Rana Plaza collapse and take appropriate legal action against the persons responsible for the disaster. Hassan MS Azim argued for the second petition.
 
Bangladesh: UK rescue aid rejected after Dhaka factory collapse

More than 370 people died when the eight-story Rana Plaza building crumbled into a vast pile of rubble on Wednesday. Teams of ill-equipped local rescuers have been sifting through mountains of wreckage for survivors.

Foreign offers to provide experienced disaster rescue teams, which could potentially have saved more lives, were turned down last week, diplomatic sources said.

Documents seen by The Daily Telegraph indicate both Bangladesh's foreign and home ministries rejected the offers because they feared that accepting aid would damage national pride. The documents disclose a diplomatic campaign to persuade Bangladeshi officials to accept the assistance, and "face-saving" suggestions on keeping it low-key to avoid offending Bangladeshi sensitivities.

When United Nations officials became aware of the large numbers of people trapped under the rubble, consultations were held with Western diplomats to assess whether Bangladesh had the wherewithal to mount an effective rescue operation. They decided it did not, and approached several governments, including Britain's, to identify which could send teams of rescuers and heavy lifting equipment.

"The UN has underlined that the needed search and rescue support, including the UK contribution, is available from the international community, but this has been rejected," one official said.



Instead, the rescue operation relied on local volunteers without protective clothing, many of whom wore plastic sandals. On Saturday, The Daily Telegraph disclosed how doctors delegated a volunteer garment factory worker to amputate the hand of one survivor to allow her to be rescued. Some buried workers have survived in day-time temperatures of 95F (35C) by drinking their own urine.

The government has also been criticised by the relatives of those trapped in the debris for apparently trying to end the rescue mission prematurely. Officials were due to deploy heavy machinery to clear the rubble away last week, having decided survivors would not last more than 72 hours. But after a public backlash they delayed the plan, as more people were pulled out alive and yet more cries from survivors could be heard.

A spokesman for Britain's Department for International Development confirmed it had offered "specialist technical advice" which Bangladesh had rejected.

C.Q.K Mustaq Ahmed, a senior secretary in Bangladesh's Ministry of Home Affairs, said that he had heard that his minister had rejected an offer, but did not know about it directly. "I hear that he said there is no need," Mr Ahmed said.

The owner of the building, Mohammed Sohel Rana, a youth leader of Bangladesh's ruling Awami League, was arrested in Benapole, near the border with India on Sunday. He is accused of encouraging workers to return inside the Rana Plaza despite warnings from engineers it could collapse.

Bangladesh: UK rescue aid rejected after Dhaka factory collapse - Telegraph
 
I fail to understand why BD govt rejected outside help.

People were rescued with bare hand and only because of that so many lives could be saved. They started using machines after 96 hours and I think we have enough of that as of now.
 
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