Old Town Chemical shops without fire licence

Only two out of some 702 chemical shops and stores in the old parts of Dhaka have valid fire safety licences, sources in the fire service and civil defence directorate said on Sunday.
   After the tragic June 3 fire incident that originated from a chemical storage at Nimtali that claimed some 124 lives, the fire service directorate prepared a list of 994 chemical traders in Dhaka metropolitan area.
   The directorate at a meeting on Monday submitted the list to the task force formed to take measures for shifting chemical warehouses from the city’s crowded residential areas.
   At the meeting, the representatives of the chemical traders, who clearly have little or no fire safety measures, pressed for further extension of the deadline that ends on September 30.
   ‘I have no say in this regard. The ministry of industries will decide it,’ Md Iqbal Khan Chowdhury, head of the task force, replied to the traders.
   The Dhaka City Corporation and the Explosives Department also submitted separate lists of chemical traders, licensed under their jurisdictions, at the meeting, he said.