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Tragedy 4 Years Old

Nimtoli free of chemical stores

Shaheen Mollah And Tamanna Khan
A young boy's portrait hangs on the wall ofTaj Decorator on the ground floor of Gulzar Elahi's five storey building at Nimtoli in Old Dhaka.
The shop, which rents out decorative and other equipment for parlies or social functions, is located at the same place of a chemical storehouse from where a deadly fire had spread, killing as many as 123 people and injuring at least 200 others on June 3,2010.
"This is my son's photo. He was one of the fire victims," said Mohammad Sadek, proprietor of the shop and owner of another five-storied building in Nimtoli which too bears the brunt of the inferno.
"I would never allow another chemical shop, storehouse or any other business establishment in this area," he said with conviction. "That is why I have rented this place and started a decoration business." Sadek was only articulating what the entire neighbourhood stands firm for.
Ever since the tragedy, locals joined hands to have all the chemical stores and warehouses removed from Nimtoli area.
"A small shoe factory still runs secretly inside a house in Nimtoli," said Nasir Hossain, a stationary shop-owner who had lost his shop in the deadly fire. "When we came to know about it, the community put pressure and the factory owner promised to relocate it by July 31."
G u 1 z a r and his brothers Mohammad Didar and Mohammad Faruk, who lost 11 members of their family in the incident, themselves are vocal against renting out spaces to chemical warehouses.
"We did not know that they used to keep chemicals there. The tenant told us that they want the place for storing plastic goods and we believed them naively," said Gulzar as he recalled the horror his family and many others suffered four years
back.
"We want people to learn from our mistakes and be cautious about whom to rent out their places to. Landlords should also check on their tenants from time to time and see that they are complying with the rules," he told The Daily Star, urging the authorities to help relocate chemical warehouses from other parts of the old town.
Though the people of Nimtoli have collectively been able to prevent any chemical warehouses in the area, hazardous chemicals are still stored without any precautionary measures in other areas of Old Dhaka, especially Armanitola, Nabab Katra, Bangshal, Sat Rowza, Siddique Bazar, Babubazar and Mitford.
The government in April 2011 had decided to relocate chemical warehouses from residential areas to industrial zones in Keraniganj or Kamrangir Char but the decision has not been implemented yet, putting forth one ominous question - Do we have to learn only the hard way?