Strategically Speaking
Destroying is more difficult than building …
And perhaps costlier too, at least in terms of human lives. This has been very amply demonstrated in what can appropriately be described as the sad saga of Rangs Bhaban.
I have deliberately used the word 'destroy.' My reasons for saying so will be clear as we go along. Pulling down a building, the size of the one we are talking about, would involve a degree of judicious mental exercise. Looking at the way the operation was conducted, it appears that very little planning and even less thinking had gone behind it.
Rajuk insists that there was a systematic program, but have acknowledged that they did neither have the experience nor the expertise to carry out such a demolition. But one fails to understand their assertion that the rest of the building below the sixth floor was not deemed unsafe while the demolition was being conducted above.
And if their call for advice and support from various agencies had not been responded to, one could ask why Rajuk went ahead with the demolition without expert advice nonetheless?
Could one ask how many lives were lost in the construction of all of the twenty-two floors of Rangs Bhaban? Not one, at least not that one is aware of, during the three or four years of its construction. And we have already lost twelve precious human lives in trying to bring it down.
But not all bodies have been recovered as yet, one suspects, (no fault of the fire service or other agencies involved in the recovery operation) although bodies of five dead labourers were recovered only the other day, after ten days of effort by the fire service.
The matter assumes a painful poignancy when one relates to the sad event a very heart rending comment of a relative of one of the dead labourers working inside the building, waiting to have the body recovered from the debris that had turned into a virtual death trap because of the crass manner the demolition work was conducted.
He said that the apparent lackadaisical manner in which the recovery work had been conducted would have been different had the dead been 'human beings' and not 'labourers.'
That is indeed a sad observation on the lot of the poor in Bangladesh, which must touch the heart of everyone except the most insensate. Not only are the indigents in Bangladesh not able to live a life of dignity, they are also often denied a dignified death or a final rest as has been in the case of the unfortunate labourers -- being buried in the debris or left impaled by a rod for ten long days.
The demolition work may not have cost much money, till now at least, but we could have saved a great many human lives, even if they were of labourers, if the knocking down operation had been planned well. The entire saga had not only a touch of theatrics, it was marked by a display of undue haste that demonstrated an attempt to settle scores.
The time taken to implement a court order i.e. from the time when the court ruling was made declaring the building beyond its sixth floor illegal, till the first Rajuk worker set upon it to bring it down, has perhaps surpassed all records. But it could not hide the very amateurish manner in which the entire operation was conducted.
One wonders whether it was at all necessary to break up the windowpanes and that too without taking adequate safety measures for the passersby and those living in and around the building, that being also situated on the so-called VIP road frequented more by the commoners mostly than the gentry.
If a portion of the Bhaban was illegal, there were perhaps among the crowd of officials that afternoon some who had more than a small part in the construction of the illegal portion of the building taking a convoluted delight in its destruction.
In fact these were the common faces that one noticed going about demolishing illegal structures in may parts of the city not very long ago, whose job it was to ensure that the plans and building code were not violated in the first place. Nobody has as yet called them to explain how the illegal structures came to be there at all.
When the demolition started in August the owners and the users of the premise were hardly afforded adequate time to remove their moveable belongings. It is irrational to suggest that a multi-storied building could be made absolutely safe for demolition, overnight.
But that is exactly what happened. What was the hurry? Neither was the building flying away nor was there a chance that the order of the highest court would be reversed. (How one wishes that the building had actually vanished. That might have saved us all these pains)
We are told that never before had the authorities been faced with a task of bringing down a structure of the magnitude of Rangs Bhaban. They neither had the experience nor the requisite equipments for the job.
Surprising that when people are landing on the moon we still have to grapple unsuccessfully with the task of knocking down a building in the prescribed and proper manner. What is more galling is the allegation made by experts that the provision of the national building code, of which the Rajuk is the sole guarantor of compliance, has not been conformed to by Rajuk itself.
The materials from the demolished structure were allowed to pile up on one floor while these should have been disposed off outside. The result was the accretion of load, resulting in a domino effect. One understands that there were the required equipment for doing so, but for whatever reason, these were not used (contrary to the assertion of Rajuk officials). That suggests a serious lack of supervision by the authorities concerned over those entrusted with the demolition, whose expertise in the matter has also been questioned.
The gross irregularity must be taken note of by the government also because of the fact that the very slipshod manner of the operation had put and might still put a large number of people and structures in the vicinity of the said building at great risk.
After the demolition disaster in December the inmates of houses in and around Rangs Bhaban have been asked to vacate. Such a notice should have come before the demolition started in August, with adequate time for these people to make alternative arrangements.
Listening to the concerned officials explain away, unsuccessfully though, in the media their careless handling of the project appears to be a cruel joke, particularly at the dead. It demonstrates once again the culture of impunity that allows the public agencies in our country to go about committing one mistake after another. But the authorities must take note when such mistakes result in the loss of innocent lives.
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