HC asks owner to give Tk 5 lakh each

The High Court yesterday ordered the owner of MAK Corporation, a ship-breaking yard at Sitakunda in Chittagong, to pay within 15 days Tk 5 lakh in compensation to each of the families of the four workers killed in an explosion at the yard last month.
The HC bench of Justice AHM Shamsuddin Chowdhury Manik and Justice Sheikh Md Zakir Hossain also asked the owner, MA Kashem, to provide the treatment cost of the workers injured in the blast.
Delivering verdict on a suo moto rule, the HC directed Kashem to take steps for providing a permanent job for each of the family of the dead workers.
In addition, the bench ordered the police to proceed with the case filed against Kashem in connection with the deaths of the workers.
On January 19, the HC issued the suo moto rule against Kashem, asking him to explain why he should not be punished on contempt of court charges for breaking ships violating its order.
The court, however, exempted him from the contempt charge, as he apologised to the court yesterday.
The suo moto rule followed the deaths of four workers of MAK Corporation in an explosion on January 18. The bench also directed the government to stop all kinds of scrapping of ships in the country until further order.
Following a writ petition by Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers' Association (Bela), the HC in March 2009 ordered the government not to allow any ship to enter the country without cleaning its in-built toxic substance.