Rejoinder, our reply

Japan Garden City authorities in a rejoinder to The Daily Star's two news items headlined “Developer ignored hazard alarm” and “Life chokes in concrete jungle” on May 23 said that the fire occurred due to “gross negligence” of the flat owner.
It said the fire fighting system kept at every building is functional and the reports were “fabricated” and intended to tarnish the company's image.
The rejoinder, signed by Japan Garden City's director Abdullah Al Mamun, said the point taken from the February 2009 meeting of Japan Garden City Service Advisory Committee and used in the report is unknown to them.
OUR REPLY
The Daily Star reports were filed based on the findings of the fire service and civil defence department, public works ministry and Rajuk as well as interviews of the residents, top government officials, leading architects and planners and the company officials.
Fire department's investigation team held the developer responsible for the fire incident and casualties.
The rejoinder does not contradict findings of the investigations carried out by the government agencies.
Though the rejoinder say the reference to the service advisory committee is unknown to them, it later recognises that the point merely discussed fund for maintenance of fire fighting system.
We took the point from the body of a letter on February 2009 meeting and signature of the company's director Asaduzzaman Jamil from its bottom and put together only to show that the developer was already aware of the non-functional fire fighting system at each of the buildings.
Though the rejoinder claims that the Japan Garden City has all the functional fire equipment in place, a mobile court of the fire service and civil defence department on May 25 penalised the housing authorities with a fine of Tk 1.90 lakh for lack of functional fire fighting equipment.
Regarding penalty by the mobile court, Md Wahiduzzaman, managing director of Japan Garden City Limited, said that the fire department's rules do not corroborate with theirs.
We stand by our reports.