Safety measures at workplace
Death of two construction workers by falling from an 18-strorey building in the Motijheel Commercial area of the city only exposes how insecure our workers are at the workplaces. And more particularly, it is the construction workers who face the worst kind of risks.
In the Motijheel incident, as the report goes, the victims were painting the high-rise building at its top floor. But the window platform on which they were standing to do their work was a decrepit one and they fell to the ground along with the rusty platform to their death.
The first question that comes to mind is, who is responsible for the tragedy and who allowed the use of such an old platform at a high-rise construction site in the first place. And if one is to go by the version of the site supervisor, as mentioned in the report, then the victims themselves are to take the blame for the accident, for it is one of them who supplied the window platform as part of the sub-contract for painting the building. However, this version of the accident has been contradicted by some of the workers at that site. The report further states that the steel wire that was attached to the widow-cleaning platform was also rusty.
The contradictory versions on the cause of the fall aside, what is of concern here is was there none to look after these safety-related problems at the construction site in question? For it is not only an issue of safety of the construction workers at the construction site of a high-rise building. Just to think of the situation, if say, some passers-by or onlookers were also standing at the spot where the iron-platform crashed down? In fact, it is not simply an issue of safety of only the construction people involved. The area surrounding such a high-rise site should also come under the purview of the safety issues at a construction site.
To all appearances, in spite of the raging construction boom all around, whether in the capital city or elsewhere, the safety-related issues have presumably never crossed the mind of either of those in charge of the construction sites, or of the government. For reports on such deaths of construction workers or unsuspecting pedestrians passing by under-construction buildings abound. Even this year some 70-construction workers have died in accidents under similar circumstances, while the figure was 100 last year.
While we would be waiting for the result of the police investigation to trace the exact cause of the incident, we would in the same breath also expect of the authorities concerned to take urgent measures to ensure safety at the workplaces, especially at the construction sites. On this score, the government would do well to consult with all concerned to form a set of rules and standards to ensure workers' safety at workplaces, as well as ensure strict oversight and compliance of the same.
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