The public mind is now seized with the series of cruel deaths during fires in the garment factories located in the wrong type of premises in the residential areas. The latest incident reveals that the fire was controlled but many work-ers/staff died due to stampede while trying to rush out of the floors and the building. Innocent lives have been lost unnecessarily due to administrative negligence over the years.

The greater and more urgent problem to solve immediately under a crash project is to modify and arrange the quick exits from the premises of the large number of workers to escape from a fire.

Due to security reasons the administrations of the factories work on the basis of one-entry and one-exit point during the dally working hours (the other points are under lock and key; and double staircases do not exits). There is no adequate and compulsory arrangement for multiple exit points for evacuation during emergencies (fire, quake etc.). Multi-storied factories are death traps known to the authorities. How the approval could be issued? It is sui cidal!

The garment industry should go immediately for flatted factories in separate industrial zones near the cities, with high-density hostels or dormi-tories for the female workers. A start has to be made. The present ad hoc and haphazard "planning' (!) won t do. The philosophy appears to be go for the profit; the problems will take care of themselves!

The administration has to be more sensitive. and there must be pressure from the regulatory and apex bodies for the factory owners to confirm to adequate safety arrangements which work without waste of time (seconds rather than minutes). The lawful penalties are never imposed. A few heavy fines and factory lock-ups will change the attitude. Why is our society so undisciplined in every sphere of life?

In an undisciplined and unregulated environment during the mushroorylng growth period. the factories were set up in the wrong places (why? — the government must find out); and later, the associations did not bother to be strict with the members to carry out modifications. or shift to safer locations. Thus the problems piled up and multiplied (not added) over the years and decades.

For this lax attitude, the indifference of the authority during successive regimes deserve to be condemned. Now the problem has assumed proportions which appear to be going out of control It is not easy to relocate 2000 garment factories in Dhaka quickly; there are problems of time, space, and human aspects. Which is easier to tackle: a sapling, or a big oak tree?

Belatedly, now a high-power probe committee has been formed to spell out the solutions in phases This is a poor show of compounded problems which were avoidable. Good governance is more than lip-service making noise and sermonising. .