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THE fire at the National Textbook and Curriculum Board warehouse in the capital Dhaka on Sunday morning, which, according to a report published in New Age on Monday, may have burnt most of the 75,000 reams of printing paper stocked inside, looks set to have a debilitating impact on printing and distribution of primary and secondary level textbooks. NCTB officials claim that the incident ‘will not hamper timely distribution of textbooks for primary students’ but ‘it will not be possible to reach secondary textbooks to schools in time.’ While there are reasons to not feel reassured by such words of assurance, especially given the textbook board’s track record, which is regrettably replete with missed deadlines under normal circumstances, the board will hopefully redouble its efforts to make sure the incident has minimum possible impact on the students.
   In the meantime, the authorities need to ascertain the cause of the fire at the NCTB warehouse beyond doubt. While fire service officials say they could not establish the exact reason for the fire, some officials suspect that it may have started from an electric short-circuit. Under the normal circumstances, such an explanation could have been accepted without a grain of salt; however, the circumstances leading up to the fire may not have been normal. Allegations have already been raised, by a section of officials involved in printing and publication of textbooks, that some dishonest officials and employees of the board in association with a supplier who had supplied ‘low-quality paper’ to the board may have been involved in the incident. The timing of the fire is also intriguing. The New Age report quotes an NCTB official as saying ‘private printers lodged complaint’ that the papers supplied by this particular supplier ‘are not fit for book printing’. Curiously still, the three-member committee that the textbook formed in the past week was supposed to start its investigation on Sunday. The fire, says the official, ‘might have damaged all the low-quality papers.’ It could, therefore, be a planned incident to destroy evidence of the alleged foul play in the supply of printing papers.
   Hence, the seven-member committee that the government formed on Sunday to investigate the fire, and submit its preliminary report in three working and the final report in 15 days looks to have its work cut out. It needs to keep in mind the context and circumstances of the fire as it goes about its investigation. The authorities, on the other hand, need to realise that they may be dealing with a case of possible arson and thus extend maximum cooperation to investigators. Overall, there is hardly any scope for anyone at the textbook board or on the probe committee to regard the fire as merely an accident. Also, the authorities need to ensure that the investigation is carried out in a credible and transparent manner, not only in reality but also in the perception of the public. Besides, they need to ensure that the findings of the probe are made public.

Attack on puja pavilion
must be stopped

CONSTITUTIONALLY Bangladesh is no longer a secular country but that does not mean secular values should be allowed to be trampled underfoot at every turn. It is not only a question of constitutional provision. The common people of this country have always been, by nature, tolerant at worst and respectful at best towards the religious customs and rites of the other communities. Even when there were communal riots (rare and short-lived in this country) houses, shops and properties of the victims were targeted; temples, houses of worship and images were not involved. Then how has it all changed so soon? Maybe the troublemakers are small in number but they are growing and communal incidents are getting more frequent.
   During Durga Puja last month, a group of ruling Awami League activists reportedly swooped on a puja mandap in Old Dhaka. On Sunday, a group of people, said to be activists of the Bangladesh Chhatra League, students’ front of the ruling party, attacked a puja pavilion in Sylhet, disrupting the rituals of Kali puja. According to a report published in New Age on Monday, the troublemakers, armed with hockey sticks and machetes, used abusive words and beat up at least five worshippers. In terms of casualties, it may have been a small attack but the scar it leaves on the social psyche goes deep.
   Worse still, in both cases, the attackers are said to be affiliated with the ruling party and its associate organisation. Since the AL-led government assumed office, there has been a steady stream of reports coming from different corners of the country, of activists of the ruling party and its associate organisations running amok in their respective localities. While the government and ruling party leaders have talked tough against such transgressions, their words have hardly translated into definitive and demonstrative actions. As a result, the troublemakers within the ruling party’s rank and file seem to have only been emboldened to carry on with their menacing acts.
   The law enforcement authorities have, meanwhile, mostly appeared unable, if not unwilling, to bring the perpetrators to book. As is reported, no case was recorded with the local police station on the vandalism at the puja mandap till Sunday afternoon. The apparent lack of enthusiasm on the part of law enforcers is unacceptable. The attack on the puja mandap must be properly investigated, and the attackers identified and brought to justice.

SHIP breaking or ship demolition is a type of ship disposal involving the breaking up of ships for scrap recycling, with the hulls being discarded into ship graveyard. Most ships have a lifespan of a few decades before there is so much of wear as to make their refitting and repair unviable. Ship-breaking allows materials from the ship, especially steel, to be reused. In addition to steel and other useful materials, however, ships (particularly older vessels) may contain some substances that are banned or considered dangerous in developed countries. Asbestos and polychlorinated biphenyls are typical examples. Asbestos was used heavily in ship construction until it was finally banned in most of the developed world in the mid 1980s. Currently, the costs associated with removing asbestos, coupled with the potentially expensive insurance and health risks, have meant that ship-breaking in most developed countries is no longer economically viable.
   But driven by avarice some businessmen in developing countries are still in the business of ship-breaking, flouting rules of the country and polluting the environment. Therefore, many workers are found toiling hard in tough conditions at the ship-breaking yards in the country, without having any unions, safety equipment and training, and consequently risking their lives. They are billeted in barracks with no beds but steel plates scavenged from the ships they break. Many of them die in explosions set off by blowtorches deep inside the fume-filled holds and due to other causes.
   In response to a petition filed by the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association, the High Court directed the Department of Environment to ensure that all ship-breaking yards operating without environmental clearance close their operations within two weeks of the order. As none of the 79 ship-breaking yards in Chittagong currently have any environmental clearance, all of the yards were, subsequently, shut down. This decision of shutting down, therefore, came as a relief to environmentalists and human rights activists who have been criticising the activities of the yards for many years for their complete disregard for the law, human health and the environment. The court also ordered that no ship listed on the ‘Greenpeace list’ of dangerous ships could be allowed into the country. BELA and Greenpeace are member organisations of the NGO Platform on ship-breaking, a global coalition working to promote safe and environmentally sound ship recycling.
   But the worst part of the story is that the whole thing has taken a dramatic turn, with most of the ship-breaking yards of the country resuming their operation with a renewed vigour, flouting the law, jeopardising the labourers’ lives and spoiling the environment as before, after the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on March 23 stayed the order of the High Court preventing any work in the ship-breaking yards. That one more worker died in an accident at a ship-breaking yard at Sitakunda upazila in Chittagong on October 14 bringing the number of workers’ deaths to six in three yards in the last one week, according to a report front-paged in New Age on October 15, is not only perplexing but a matter of grave concern for all of us. It is also alarming to note that deaths of these workers due to inhalation of poisonous gas, getting crushed under metal sheets and being burnt alive in fire are common in the ship-breaking yards. The report says that in response to a petition of Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association in March a High Court bench ordered the Department of Environment to stop operation of all ship-breaking yards as none of them had environmental clearance.
   The important thing to note is that the High Court further ordered that no end-of-life vessel should be imported by Bangladeshi ship-breakers without having it cleaned of hazardous materials such as asbestos, polychlorinated biphenyls, heavy metals and oily sludge that accompany it. This ‘pre-cleaning’ requirement was ordered in accordance with Bangladesh’s national toxic waste import ban and its responsibilities as a party to the Basel Convention – a UN treaty which decided in 1995 to ban the export of toxic wastes to developing countries. Pre-cleaning has been one of the demands of the NGO platform on ship-breaking in order to avoid receiving a deadly and disproportionate burden of toxic ship waste from the global shipping industry.
   What is disconcerting about the whole thing is that the powerful ship-breakers could elicit another order from the Appellate Division staying the verdict of the High Court, with a petition, to continue their ghastly operation. This is a glaring example of their clout being exercised in defiance of the country’s rules.
   As a result, a worker of Habib Steel died when a huge iron plate fell on him at about 12:30pm on October 14, according to the police and the sources in the yard. The victim was taken to the Chittagong Medical College and Hospital, where the doctors declared him dead at about 2:30pm. He was identified as Mohammed Jahangir Alam, son of Mohammed Aziz Ullah of Lakshmanpur under Badarganj upazila in Rangpur. Two workers of Pakija Enterprise ship-breaking yard died after inhaling poisonous gas at Sitakunda upazila in Chittagong on October 13. Three workers were smashed to death by an iron-plate at Crystal ship-breaking yard on October 8. So far at least 17 workers have died in accidents at different ship-breaking yards this year, said sources. At least 18 workers were killed in 2006 and 2007 and 15 in 2008, which shows a continuous increase in casualties each year.
   Abdus Sobhan, director of the DOE’s Chittagong office, said that only 30 out of a total of 79 ship-breaking yards in Chittagong had submitted ‘incomplete applications’ for environmental clearance, which again points to their utter disregard for the workers’ deaths and a nonchalant attitude towards making amends for the fatal incidents. Assistant executive director of the Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies, Sultan Uddin Ahmed’s statement that the deaths of labourers should not be considered mere accidents as they happen because of negligence of the owners who do not arrange any safety measures in ‘hazardous work places’ should be taken a serious note of and the owners’ negligence should be treated as a criminal offence. That the labourers are allowed to work without any safety gear and deal with toxic substances with bare hands without either any job contracts or health insurance, undoubtedly, amounts to a blatant violation of the labour law. Violation of the law in the yards should be stopped immediately with stringent enforcement of the relevant rules by the concerned authorities.
   If ship-breaking yards are allowed to operate in a sickening, pestilential environment with labourers exposed to risks, unleashing potential health hazards and risks of deaths, the authorities concerned will also become a party to the criminal offence along with the owners of the yards. To absolve themselves of the crime the authorities must act
   expeditiously by taking legal measures against the offenders and enforcing rules in this regard to avert any disaster.