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BSS-07
PM-FIRE SAFETY
Chawakbazar tragedy appeared as lesson for chemical warehouse owners: PM
DHAKA, Feb 23, 2019 (BSS) – Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today said the
Chawkbazar tragedy appeared as a lesson for chemical warehouse owners in Old
Dhaka, expressing her belief this time they would not decline to relocate
their godowns elsewhere as insisted earlier.
“I hope that those who earlier opposed to relocate their chemical
warehouses from (crammed) old Dhaka will not hesitate after the tragedy,” she
told newsmen after visiting the wounded fire patients at National
Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery here.
A state-of art facility under Dhaka Medical College Hospital the institute
is treating several burn wound people since the Chawakbazar fire broke out
two days ago.
The premier said the government had launched an initiative to relocate the
warehouses of flammable products nine years ago when the Nimtali tragedy
occurred but the effort was upset due to reluctance of the warehouse owners.
“We undertook a project and earmarked a place at Keraniganj for relocating
the warehouses, some of which legal and some illegal, from the old part of
Dhaka to check repeat of such incidents in future,” she said.
But, she said, it was a matter of regret “the decision could not be
implemented as they (owners) did not agree”.
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