BGMEA inspects 120 factories to ensure fire safety measures
News From Bangladesh
Sunday March 19 2014 09:44:16 AM BDT
Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), the apex body of the country’s apparel industry, has so far inspected 120 of its member factories under the ongoing drive to pursue the industrial units to be equipped with fire safety measures, reports UNB.
During the inspection, the BGMEA awarded penalty to some factories on charge of allowing child labour.
A top BGMEA executive told UNB Saturday that the monitoring teams, however, found stairs in some of the factories blocked with either equipment or input materials.
In such cases, the teams give warning to the concerned factories to remove all barriers to the stairs for smooth exit of the workers in case of emergency.
BGMEA vice president (finance) Shahadat Hossain Chowdhury Arun told the news agency that they started the inspection on March 9 taking video footages of the non-compliant factories.
“We found no factory that keeps its main gate closed,†he said adding that the crush programme will initially be continued for the next three months.
A total of 10 such monitoring teams are working in the capital and its adjoining areas and two others are working in the port city of Chittagong.
Stung by the Chittagong factory fire, the BGMEA earlier decided to shoot video footages of the non-compliant garment units across the country to take punitive actions.
International buyers have also been asking the BGMEA to go tough against the factories being run with poor fire safety measures, industry insiders said.
A BGMEA director is leading each of these monitoring teams that working under separate zonal groups.
Two other BGMEA officials have been made members of each monitoring team while efforts are on to engage one fire brigade personnel, one official from RAJUK and one from Inspector of Factories and Establishments in each team to make the task effective and accountable.
Earlier on Tuesday, the BGMEA asked the owners of garment factories to keep all the gates of their factories open during working hours or face punitive actions.Bangladesh Observer
