Hazardous chemicals
A front page report on the subject was published in the pages of a local English daily on 31st. August. It summed up practically all the locations where dangerous and explosive chemicals are now being handled and sold. The list indicates that most of these are located in the areas falling under Kotwali, Hazaribagh, Mirpur, Lalbagh, Ramna, Tejgaon, Sherpur and Demra police stations.
Police teams (say 3 or 4) along with first class magistrates should go to these locations, one by one; then hopefully these will be relocated from crowded residential and commercial areas in the next six months or so. It will provide some safety from the present dangerous situation when a tragic fire can occur at any time! The culprits should be brought to book, and penalized and even put behind bars, for such dangerous malpractice putting people's lives at risk.
Immediate laws to support this should be passed by parliament on priority basis in the overall safety interest of the citizen of the country. Similar actions should be taken in all other cities and urban areas of Bangladesh; the sooner the better!
Further, the names of all the parties involved, along with the name of all such dangerous chemicals should be provided to all banks. They should be asked to stop issuing any LCs to any such applicant, and inform the
Explosive Department for punitive action if no Explosive Certificates are provided by the prospective importers.
The above two measures, by informing the banks, and physically identifying and removing such dangerous chemicals from all illegal locations, will ensure safety for the unaware residents in all parts of Bangladesh! This action needs topmost priority from our government!
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