With the string of infrastructural and fire hazards witnessed ever since the beginning of this year, it is natural to question the administration's commitment to ensuring the safety of the people.
However, the recent incident of Karwan Bazar, where a group of traders blocked access to Dhaka North City Corporation officials evicting shops situated in a particularly risky location makes it clear that the problem lies not just with the administration but also with businesses which prioritize their own coffers over safety.
According to reports, the traders blocked the DNCC officials from sealing a building despite the edifice being considered abandoned all the way back in 2019 and the traders having been given ample time to relocate their shops to a safer place. Despite several notices the traders did not comply.
It is incredibly irresponsible for businesses to behave this way, as warding off safety drives clearly sends the message that they do not care about their own customers and employees if ensuring safety means a pause in their trade.
City corporation officials tasked with infrastructural safety drives need to be more empowered, needless to say. As a city, Dhaka already has the ill reputation of being unsafe given its perpetual development, the city even ranked well below an acceptable threshold in the Economist's last Safe Cities Index conducted in 2021.
Areas such as markets and shopping complexes witness a lot of footfall so it is of the utmost importance that they be structurally sound so as to avert the absolute worst case scenario. But if businesses and traders keep prioritizing profits over people, punitive measures are the only way to get them to see the errors of their ways.
