Representatives of readymade garment factory owners at a meeting on Tuesday said that the export-oriented apparel industry was still 'under pressure from the notorious underworld' in some places.
New office-bearers of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association led by its president Shafiul Islam Mohiuddin held the meeting with the home minister, Sahara Khatun, at the secretariat.
The BGMEA leaders also said that the city's 'chronic traffic congestion' was largely affecting the sector as large work hours were lost to the traffic jams in the Dhaka city and its adjacent areas.
They urged the law enforcement agencies to ensure that the traffic rules were strictly maintained.
A director of BGMEA board of directors requested the home ministry to look into the alleged pressure on the industrialists by the 'underworld'. He did not give details of the matter in the meeting.
Sahara assured the factory owners of all cooperation from the government for development of the apparel sector, which was now earning around $12 billion a year and also providing job for rural people.
State minister for home Shamsul Haque, home secretary Abdus Sobhan Sikder and inspector general of police Hasan Mahmud Khandker, among others, attended the meeting, which was open for journalists.
The garment factory owners said that the government should provide accommodation and offices for the newly introduced Industrial Police, a specialised force, to maintain order in the industrial sector, to enable them to function more effectively.
They said that some factory owners were now providing accommodation for the Industrial Police which they could not continue for a long time.
Shamsul Haque asked the BGMEA leaders to give land and offices to the Industrial Police as the government's land acquisition process, he mentioned, was complicated and time-consuming as well.
The secretary, however, assured the industrialists that the government would arrange office and logistics for the Industrial Police, operating under the police department.
He stressed the need for ensuring fire safety measures at each industrial unit to avoid casualties from fire incidents.
The BGMEA president said a total of 274 people had died from fire incidents in the readymade garment factories in last 20 years.
He demanded setting up of fire stations in the industrial zones at Ashulia and Narayanganj.
The RMG factory owners also complained to the home minister that organised gangs were involved in theft from covered vans carrying export items on the highways.
Source: New Age
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