As bodies after bodies were wheeled into Dhaka Medical College's morgue on February 21 last year, there was no dearth of offers for help.

There was a strong realisation of the fact that the Chawkbazar fire was a collective failure of the state and the society, and the government as well as the private sector stepped in with promises of financial aid for the victim families.

A day after the tragedy, on February 21, the Ministry of Labour and Employment promised a compensation of Tk 1 lakh for the families of each of the deceased, who were either street hawkers, rickshaw pullers or worked at different establishments in the area. A press release signed by Monnujan Sufian, state minister for labour and employment, stated such.

Later on December 18, a board meeting of the Bangladesh Labour Welfare Foundation decided to raise the compensation money to Tk 2 lakh. The ministry made a list of 27 deceased workers it would be helping out using the foundation's funds.

Earlier in April that year, 40 private banks had deposited cheques worth Tk 30 crore in the government's national relief fund in assistance to all the victims, according to media reports of that time.

And on March 28, at a public hearing at the capital's Cirdap, Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) Mayor Sayeed Khokon promised city corporation jobs to the families of the deceased.


All those promises, however, remain caught up in bureaucratic tangles.

The Daily Star spoke to the families of 40 of the 71 killed in the devastating fire. None of them said they received a Taka from the authorities mentioned above.

They said each of them got only Tk 20,000 in cash handed by the district commissioner's office along with the body bags at the DMC morgue. The money was for burial expenses.