Rangs Bhaban incident
The incident that is hammering my mind for last few days is perhaps bothering many others as well. A number of hard working workers' lives were lost for no fault of theirs. The only reason they were there was for earning from honest labour. They died ignominiously. This death was not for them. Yes, I am feeling angry and humiliated as a human being who had to witness such deaths in the capital city of a sovereign country, which was too earned through a bloodbath in the same month of December a few decades ago.
Now, many enquiry committees are working to find out the reasons for the accident (?), which I don't want to accept. Perhaps, reports will come out, people will explain technical reasons on how the structure failed in well attended seminars, workshops or symposia, have discussion and foods, and numerous reports will highlight this to enlighten the intelligentsia. But, lives lost will not be back and the sufferings of those poor families will not end.
The price of each life is fixed at taka one lakh. Once given out all will be forgotten. To be able to fix a monetary price for life is perhaps the logic behind the perpetration of a wilful crime against humanity. Whatever the authorities may say to save their face, nobody can fix the price of life! Once that is accepted, no one can be less serious in handling any situation where people will be working.
What would happen if Rajuk would strictly apply the provisions of Public Procurement Regulations' qualification criteria? The engineers at Rajuk are now explaining in vivid technical terms where the contractor has failed. Where were they in the process of selection of the contractor? If they understand all these reasons for which a failure might occur, where were the safety clauses?
In fact, instead of selecting a duly qualified contractor to do the job, they wanted to do it cheap. They did not set the appropriate qualification criteria for the contractor. It should be a common practice not to award the contract to a contractor who does not have previous experience of at least 80% of similar works in magnitude and complexity. To demolish a 22 storied concrete high rise situated right on one of the most busy roads, which almost always remains full of traffic (vehicular as well as pedestrians), they have selected a contractor whose experience was only with demolition of one (or some) three storied isolated buildings. Moreover, to demolish a building's upper portion only, allowing people to remain and work below the demolition work is another crime.
Rajuk probably thought that if they made the stringent qualification criteria, then costs would be higher. I do not understand what on earth would go wrong if we had to engage foreign contractors for the work? Are we not engaging foreign contractors/consultants even where they are not needed? Well, here the bargain is between a few lives of poor workers and money! So, go cheap, save money, even now, if Rajuk has to pay compensation, it will not exceed the contract value with a duly qualified contractor. So, pay the price with human lives! Does it sound absurd? Look at the reality.
Great Rajuk! We, the city dwellers, are depending on your technical competency when you are the sole authority to approve all building designs, low and high-rise.
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