Staff Reporter :
Taskforce formed by the Dhaka South City Corporation to remove inflammable chemicals from old Dhaka faced resistance from chemical traders on Saturday.
The members of the taskforce team suspended the drive at Bakshi Bazar and went back to the Nagorbhaban.
DSCC Mayor Sayeed Khokon later joined the drive and cut gas and electricity connection from 13 holdings where they found inflammable chemicals.
The drive was part of relocation efforts of the DSCC in the aftermath of the February 20 inferno at Chawkbazar that claimed 71 lives so far.
Mayor Sayeed Khokon told the journalists at the Nagorbhaban at noon that a team of the taskforce went Bakshi Bazar in the morning to evict chemical warehouses, but was forced to stop in the face of unrest by traders.
Mayor Sayeed Khokon vowed before the journalists that the city corporation will not give up the efforts to make the citizens lives safe. He joined the drive around 2pm and cut off the utility connections from those houses where the warehouses of inflammable chemicals found.
Replying to a query, Mayor Khokon said after Nimtoly tragedy, the traders were repeatedly given time but they did not do even in nine years to relocate their inflammable warehouses as well as factories. They had not removed those. As a result, the Chawkbazar tragedy took place which claimed many lives. He said, “No more time to be given to the traders in this regard.”
He said, one of the city BNP leaders spread rumors that the taskforce was using force to remove chemicals and laying those materials out of the warehouses. But it was not true. We are disconnecting gas and electricity as the houses become safe temporarily.
Besides, we have given time to the traders to relocate those and then the utility services will be connected again.
Mayor said, “After my joining in the drive no more rumor were spread. We talked with traders and locals and convince them that the drive is very essential for peoples’ safety.
Chawkbazar police said that a DSCC team found a chemical warehouse in a residential building on Joynag Road in the morning. Locals started agitation when the team tried to disconnect electricity and gas lines, forcing the taskforce to halt the drive.
Representatives from Fire Service and Civil Defence, Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Limited, Department of Explosives, Officer-in-charge of local Police Station, Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority, and Dhaka Power Distribution Company were present. DSCC officials said, taskforce cut utility services from nine holdings from Shahidnagor area and four holdings from Bakshibazar area.
