[Photo/Banglar Chokh: Still waiting for a “rescue operation,” dead bodies decompose.]
[Zafa Noor, USA.]
A horrible tragedy claimed the lives of four demolition crew in the Rangs Bhaban Building stranding at least ten others under piles of rubble Saturday night. The 22-storey building was being demolished by RAJUK (Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha) that had neither the expertise nor the equipment necessary to manage a demolition project so massive. The result was inevitable. Several floors of Rangs caved in and crushed the sleeping workers in several floors. Yes, you read it right, there were demolition crew, exhausted from working for long hours and asleep, under tons of concrete that was lurking on them to crush the unsuspecting sleepers any moment.
How on earth was that possible! What kind of site engineer or project manager would allow any off-duty personnel to even go anywhere near the demolition area.
The demolition zone should have been restricted to only the crew on duty and fully equipped with personal protective gear
December 13th, 2007 at 5:07 am
This was a tragedy. But the negligence seems criminal. In the bloodlust to knock down this “symbol” of corruption it seems like even basic safety precautions were not taken.
December 13th, 2007 at 5:56 am
Like many things going on in the country, this is another emblem of hasty, theatrical action (”lok dekhano”), going in and demolishing a tall building without any plan and foresight but just for the heck of showing we can, and then tumbling into more tragedy and complexity from where one cannot extricate oneself. I shudder to think that the authorities would allow bodies of workers lying in the rubble days after the event, such utter inhumanity. And what darned recklessness that led to the tragic and unnecessary deaths of human beings in the first place. Shouldn’t someone take responsibility? Shouldn’t some heads roll?
December 13th, 2007 at 8:51 am
Shame on CTG.
Shame on Mainul.
Shame on Fakhruddin.
Shame on Moeen U Ahmed.
Shame on us… We are living in the stone age.
December 13th, 2007 at 11:00 am
There shouldn’t be any question to whom the responsibility lies. Government failed to give any value to the people’s lives and this is just another example of such attitude.
December 14th, 2007 at 1:05 am
Rangs Building: A Tragedy? I would rather rename the headline as Rangs Building: A National Shame. The dead bodies of human beings dangled amidst us right in the heart of the city atop the theatrically demolished building, while advisers and generals circled around in their vehicles as if the site was a monument to the macabre. It’s a shame that it took the rescuers seven days to get their acts together. Where was the top-notch defense personnels? What was the DGFI doing? Hatching their usual plots?
December 15th, 2007 at 4:17 am
Because they are poor and day-labour…it seems nobody was responsible for these dead bodies……………
December 16th, 2007 at 1:38 am
Compared to the theatrical and disastrous rush to pull down Rangs, nothing has been done to Westin Hotel on Gulshan Avenue which also remains accused as flouting building construction rules. But curiously and not so surprisingly that has not been touched and will not be… as the story is that the hotel’s Bangladeshi owner is none other than the accuser in one of the Hasina extortion case (someone can verify: Azam Chowdhury?).
December 18th, 2007 at 2:05 am
Spot on #3. Bangladesh is a fourth world country. It should be against the law for any person in Bangladesh to attempt anything that requires skill or expertise. Shame!
December 18th, 2007 at 3:12 am
Just think if there was a political government specially BNP in power dalal Moti and Anam’s hypocritical movements.
December 18th, 2007 at 3:32 am
Clam, I see that you go from one Bangladeshi blog to another insulting Bangladesh.
The real question is why are you posting from Mohiuddin AKM Ahmed’s lawyer’s firm, Gallagher Sandoval? Is this the kind of pathetic and hateful language you want to associate with your law firm? We know that your client is a convicted murderer but it surprises us that the American law firm representing the convict would be full of so much hate for Bangladesh.
Don’t embarrass yourself and your law firm by your bigoted comments. People will only laugh at you.