The ILO-managed Rana Plaza Trust Fund awarded Tk 10.79 crore last month to the first batch of 332 victims of the building collapse, said Srinivasa Reddy, country director of the International Labour Organisation in Bangladesh.

The fund will soon be transferred to the victims' fixed deposit accounts with Dutch Bangla Bank, he said.

“The fund was supposed to be transferred a lot earlier, but it was delayed due to conversion of their savings accounts into fixed deposit ones," Reddy told The Daily Star by phone.

The Rana Plaza Coordination Committee, formed to complete the compensation process, decided to pay through

fixed deposit accounts as such accounts will yield better returns forthe victims, he said.

■We will pay another 800 victims by the 20th of this month," Reddy said.

The coordination committee has so far identified more than 3,600 victims, including workers, their relatives and dependants.

The committee will wait for a few more days to finalise the list of the victims so that nobody is deprived of compensation, Reddy said. The ILO will also publish advertisements in newspapers to look for any missing victim, he said.

On the release of promised funds by international retailers and brands, Reddy said the $40-million Trust Fund so far collected only $ 17.9 million and no new amount came since April.Of late, France-based Auchan pledged to give $1.5 million to the Trust Fund, but the retailer did not mention any specific date for the payment.

The compensation process is being delayed due to the failure of many retailers to contribute their committed amounts to the fund within the deadline of April 24, the first anniversary of the accident that claimed 1,138 lives and injured thousands.

Brands such as N Brown Group, VF Corporation, Gap, H&M Conscious Foundation, Debenhams and Zebra Fashion have made contributions even though they did not source garments from any of the factories housed in the Rana Plaza building. Primark has made a significant contribution, of around $7 million.

Earlier in April, the victims and the dependants of the deceased were given Tk 50,000 each to help them get by for now and open bank accounts, which exhausted $2 million from the $17.9 million fund.

Roy Ramesh Chandra, secretary general of IndustriALL Bangladesh Council, said the concept of fixed deposit accounts for the victims has been incorporated so that the victims, their relatives or dependants can use the money properly.

For example, if a victim receives Tk 10 lakh and deposits it in a fixed deposit account, he will get around Tk 10,000 in interest per month, he said.

"The victim will be able to run his family with the interest," Ramesh said.

A dead victim's family will receive Tk 29 lakh and a permanently disabled person Tk 42 lakh as compensation, according to an estimate by IndustriALL Global Union and ILO.