Such a terrible incident should not happen again

A terrible incident occurred in the history of Bangladesh on April 24, 2013. An eight-story building called Rana Plaza collapsed near the Savar bus stand around 8:45 am. The building that housed a garment factory, became the topic of discussion in an instant all over the globe.

In the morning, workers had just entered the building, no one knows exactly how many workers were there. Several floors of the building had sinked underground. Thousands of ordinary people rushed to the spot along with the state rescue workers. Media workers also gathered near the scene and eyes of people were on the television screens all over the country. Bodies were coming out one after another from the debris along with countless injured people. Some were trapped under the rubble, their arms and legs had to be amputated. Even on the first day, the horror of the incident was not fully understood.

As the days went by, the terrible form of this destruction began to be revealed. The death toll from one hundred, two hundred, five hundred crossed the thousand mark. Seventeen days after the building collapsed, Major Moazzem of the Army's Engineering Corps, along with his companion Sergeant Razzak, pulled a girl named Reshma alive from under the rubble. The incident of Reshma's rescue spread across the world in an instant. Reshma's rescue after 17 days was the main news of almost all the news organizations in the world. People all over the country also had their eyes on the television screens.

In this terrible accident, 1,138 workers were killed and more than 2,000 people were injured, which is considered the 3rd largest industrial accident in world history. The general public, army, police, RAB and fire service personnel carried out the rescue work. The building housed a garment factory, a bank and several other shops, and the number of casualties was high as the collapse occurred during the morning rush hour.

However, a little caution could have saved this accident. Signs that the building could collapse at any time had been seen in advance. Cracks had been seen in the building the day before. A television report was also published about it. Before the construction of Rana Plaza in 2007, the site was an abandoned pond. It was filled with sand before the building was built. According to information from the Bangladesh Fire Service and Civil Defense, the top four floors of the building were built without permission.

On April 29 of the same year, RAB arrested the building owner Sohel Rana from Benapole while he was fleeing to India. He has been in prison since then. Several cases were filed in connection to this incident. Among those, the police filed a murder case. The Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (RAJUK) filed anothet case over the construction of the building violating Building Construction Act. In addition, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) also filed a case for corruption related to the construction of the building.

According to news published in the media yesterday, Wednesday (April 23), even after a decade, most of the cases related to the Rana Plaza collapse incident have not been resolved and the affected workers and their families have not received adequate compensation. Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST), a private legal aid organization, has demanded immediate compensation, completion of the trial, and a memorial plaque to commemorate the victims.

The statement said, “Even after a decade, no one has taken responsibility for this tragedy, there has been no trial, no compensation. We want the trial to be completed quickly, the victims to be rehabilitated, and this incident to be a lesson that will never be forgotten.”

We also want this to be an extreme lesson for us. Such a touching and horrific accident should not happen again. Many multi-storey buildings in Bangladesh are still at serious risk, but safety measures have not been taken yet. Remembering the terrible accident at Rana Plaza, it is urgent to take action against risky buildings now.