The probe report of Rajdhani Unnayan Kartipakkha investigating the cause of the fire at the Green Cozy Cottage Shopping Mall in Dhaka on February 29 failing to identify its negligence leading to the avoidable and untimely deaths of innocent citizens is deeply disconcerting because continued denial will not prevent future occurrences of such tragedies. The probe committee that was formed immediately after the fire in the capital鈥檚 Bayley Road area submitted its report to the chairperson of Rajuk on April 8, passing the blame on Dhaka South City Corporation and the Fire Service and Civil Defence Department. It said that the city authority had issued trade licences to restaurants, and the fire department issued a fire safety certificate without ensuring an occupancy certificate from the Rajuk. Urban planners, however, rejected the probe report, saying that the Rajuk, as the enforcement authority, cannot deny its liability. The chief town planner of Rajuk too acknowledged their liability and said that they were responsible for monitoring if there was any deviation from the approved building design and its authorised usage. The investigation into the fire, therefore, turned out to be a futile exercise, as it only confirmed regulatory authorities鈥� continued indifference towards fire safety.
An overwhelming majority of commercial establishments and high-rise buildings in Dhaka are built without following fire safety and building codes, with the authorities ignoring or, in most cases, enabling such violations in exchange for hefty bribes. The Green Cozy Cottage Shopping Mall was no different. Fire service officials said there were cooking gas tanks on almost every floor of the building with no emergency exit. The building, moreover, housed seven restaurants, all of which had gas cylinders, even occupying parts of the stairway, thus causing the fire to spread rapidly. Similar enforcement failures by regulatory authorities including the Rajuk have been blamed for past fire incidents. After the fire at FR Tower in the capital鈥檚 Banani area in 2019, it was revealed that the building had no permission for its top four floors, and there was no fire-protected staircase in the 22-storey building that housed dozens of offices. The building was constructed in deviation of the approved plan, but Rajuk turned a blind eye to the matter. In 2013, a survey of the Rajuk and the Anti-Corruption Commission found that 94 per cent buildings in Dhaka were built without a fire safety certificate in 1997鈥�2013. Clearly, the city development authority failed to act on its own research findings and develop a foolproof fire prevention strategy.
Deaths and injuries from fires could have been easily prevented had the authorities been vigilant in approving building designs and issuing occupancy certificates after the construction. With full knowledge of the rampant violation of related regulations, about 7,500 buildings stand tall in Dhaka, but the authorities, including the Rajuk, remained inactive. Therefore, it is time that the city development authorities abandoned its strategy of denial, a strategy that has already proved fatally risky, acknowledged its enforcement failure, and addressed pervasive corruption within the agency.
