The fire that broke out at the Tekpara and Yakub Nagar slums in Firingi Bazar of Chattogram has been brought under control. The fire has burnt down nearly 200 homes. The fire service received information about the fire at around 1:20 pm on Monday (April 15). Nine units of fire service brought the fire under control after an hour's effort. Dinomoni Sharma, deputy director of Chattogram Divisional Fire Service, confirmed the incident. Local Councillor Murad said that food will be arranged for the affected families who were. Nearly 200 homes have been burnt in that incident.  

A massive fire broke out in Dhaka's Hazaribagh area. The fire was brought under control around one hour after the fire broke out. The fire broke out at around 11:50am today (April 12). On information, the fire service rushed to the spot and doused the blaze. Rozina Akhtar, duty officer of the fire service, confirmed the matter. Initially, the cause of the fire could not be ascertained. Seven units were sent to the spot after receiving the news. The fire was brought under control by 12:40 pm. The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained, she added.  

Many left homeless as fire breaks out at Korail slum. Hundreds of houses have been burnt in the fire.  The fire broke out Sunday afternoon (March 24). The fire service received information about the fire in the slum at 4:05 pm. Later, eight units of fire service brought the fire under control at 5:33 pm. More than 200 houses of the slum and the furniture used by the slum dwellers were burnt in the fire. There's still smoke coming from there. Many people are crying after losing everything in the fire. Some are trying to find out if anything is intact in the rubble. About 200 houses were burnt in the fire. The fire spread so fast that no one could take any furniture out of the house, the victims said.  

The low-income Guryong village is prone to fires, floods and other disasters. Around 500 people have been safely evacuated and taken to nearby facilities. Around 500 people were evacuated from the slum region of Guryong Village, in the South Korean capital of Seoul after a fire broke out in the early hours of Friday, local authorities said. The fire, which broke out at around 6:30 a.m. local time (2230 GMT Thursday), burned down at least 40 homes in a 1,700-square-meter radius. No casualties have been reported so far.   Video posted online showed flames tearing through the shantytown in the shadows of high-rise luxury towers in Seoul's Gangnam district, which was made famous by rapper Psy's global hit "Gangnam Style." More than 800 firefighters, public workers and police officers are working on the rescue operation under the cover of dense smoke. Officials believe the fire is likely to have started in one of the houses made of plastic and plywood. What is the Guryong slum? One of Seoul's last remaining slums, Guryong is home to some 1,000 households.  It was formed in 1988 just as Seoul prepared to host the Olympics, as squatters evicted from other areas of the capital moved in. Many homes are made of wood and cardboard and the area is prone to fires, floods and other calamities. Since 2012, the village has been hit by at least eight fires, Seoul's Gangnam district office, the local authority which oversees the area, told Agence France-Presse. The slum has become a symbol of inequality in South Korea because of its location — next to the affluent Gangnam district. Plans for redevelopment have made little progress because of disputes between residents and landlords. How have authorities responded? Evacuated residents were moved to nearby facilities including a school gym and were then due to be moved into hotels, according to Kim Ah-reum, an official at the Gangnam district office. Speaking from the World Economic Forum taking place in Davos, Switzerland, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol called for the mobilization of all available firefighters and equipment in an effort to minimize damage. Meanwhile, Interior Minister Lee Sang-min instructed authorities to protect neighboring areas from secondary damage.

Terming mysterious the fire incidents in three slums of the capital in 27 hours, BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Thursday alleged that the “ruling party-backed miscreants” did it in an effort to grab land. “The fire incidents in Pallabi’s Baunia Dam Slum, Mohakhali Sat Tola Slum and Bihari Patti Slum in Mohammadpur within 27 hours are mysterious. The victims think the slums have been set on fire by ruling party-supported plotters to establish their control over illegal drug trading and extortion there and made crores of taka by indulging in an evil process of grabbing and counter-grabbing of land,” he said. In a statement, the BNP leader said many low-income people have become helpless as they lost their homes, money and all valuables, clothes and even the cooking utensils to the fire amid the current corona situation. “They’re now leading a very inhuman life under the open sky amid cold weather.” Referring to newspaper reports, Fakhrul said though 953 fire incidents in different slums in Dhaka took place over the last three years, law enforcement agencies could not submit the chargesheet in any of the cases due to the “influence of the ruling-party backed land grabbers”. He said land grabbers are amassing wealth and making huge money by setting fires to slums of the capital while helpless fire victims are running from one slum to another for shelter. Fakhrul alleged that the government and law enforcement agencies are little concerned about the slum fire and the plight of the victims. “Such inaction can be called an act of crimes against humanity.” He said the fire victims are being deprived of assistance and cooperation despite facing extreme danger due to the absence of a government and city authority elected by the people. “The fire victims have not yet received any relief supplies from the government.” The BNP leader urged the government to identify those involved in the fire incidents and put them on trial. He also called upon the government for ensuring permanent rehabilitation of the low-income fire victims and providing them with necessary financial support. Source: UNB AH

Awami League President and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has informed that there is a plan to construct 10 thousand flats for the slum dwellers. She said this at an electoral public gathering at Kamrangirchar in the capital on Monady. Highlighting Awami League government’s plans Sheikh Hasina said at that time, I do politics for making fate of people of the country, not for mine. ‘We have planned to construct 10 thousand flats for the slum dwellers. Besides, there are plans to build elevated ring road in Dhaka and to excavate five rivers surrounding the capital.’ Sheikh Hasina said, we have done development programs throughout Bangladesh. We have turned Bangladesh into the rank of developing countries. We have changed the country through development programs one by one. She said, those who remained in power in the past, did not develop the county rather made their own development. They took the country on top position for corruption. We have taken the country back from that situation. Our government has done huge development for this Dhaka city. At that time she requested the people present there to cast their votes for boat and said, you know Bangladesh Awami League has been working being friend of people. Allow it to do development work by casting vote for boat again. ‘Our politics is for the farmers, workers and all sections of people of the country. Bangladesh will turn into a developed country in 2041’. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina sought votes for Awami League and Grand Alliance candidates in the constituencies of the capital in the public gathering organized by Dhaka metropolitan south Awami League. AH         

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said, the government is working for development of standard of living for the slum dwellers. There will be no slum in Dhaka in future. The government is working on to ensure housing for all. She said these at a program of laying foundation stone of Dasherkandi Sewerage Treatment Plant through video conference from Hotel Sonargaon in the capital on Sunday. Sheikh Hasina said, winning the election in 2008 and after forming the government in 2009 we saw that people were crying for water. We were also the sufferer. We had to buy water for use. Price of one tank water was 150 taka but we had to pay 1500 taka. This is the reality. Not only for the capital, the government is working with an aim so that people in the village level would get safe drinking water and sewerage facilities. The Prime Minister said, when we formed government in 1996 we took several steps to solve the water problem. We took quick decisions to solve the problem of water. But we could not implement those. She said, we took several steps when we came to power in 2009. Now we can see that the problem related to water is solved largely. The premier said, to solve the problem of water we deployed army in different areas to drive out scarcity. We had to solve problem of water in different areas in the capital by deploying army. She said, Dhaka WASA fixed an aim to implement project of environment friendly, sustainable and public oriented water supply. When we formed government at first we took initiatives to purify the water of WASA more. The Prime Minister said, in our second term we built Sayedabad Water Treatment Plant-2. In this way we took steps to increase production and supply of water. AH    

Housing and Public Works Minister Engineer Mosharraf Hossain said, construction work is going on to erect 533 flats for slum dwellers at Mirpur section 11 with own funding from National Housing Authority (NHA). Besides in other two projects for slum dwellers and low income people the construction project to erect rental based 10 thousand 530 flats is under approval process. The minister said these while answering a question of Ali Azam in the question answering session in the parliament on Saturday. He said, measures will be taken to build flats and allocate plots to the homeless and poor people of all districts by phases. Besides, NHA has taken steps to build residence or flats for the homeless people. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina laid the foundation stone of a project titled ‘Housing for all, nobody will be homeless’ in this regard on October 26. Mosharraf Hossain also said, the incumbent government has recently approved a housing development project in three municipal and three city corporation areas (Cumilla, Sirajganj, Narayanganj) with a view to solve the housing problem for detached people. There will be 5700 units of house in the World Bank supported project. AH    

In the capital's  Ilias Ali Mollah Slum, thousands of houses were burnt in a terrible fire. The people of this slum lost all. The incident happened at 3:30 am on Monday dawn. Later, 23 units of Fire Service brought the fire under control at 7:20 am on Monday morning. It is known that the fire spread quickly. The slum named after local parliament member Ilias Ali Mollah had seven to eight thousand tin and wooden houses. A resident of the slum said that they could see the fire some time before 3:00 am on Monday. At that time he could safely escape from the house and take shelter in a safe place but could not recover the belongings from the house. Most of the slum dwellers are like him, he said. It was seen in the morning that people started walking around after the fire at the slum in Mirpur-12. Seeing all the losses in front of their eyes, they became very sad. The slum dwellers said that at first we saw only smoke. After that, we left house keeping only life in hand. All belongings of us are lost. The fire caught at around 3:30 am on Monday dawn. After the fire, it quickly spread to the entire slum area. The Fire Service authorities were informed of the fire at 3:30 am. Soon the fire service staff reached the spot. At first 14 units worked but later 9 more units joined them. Fire Service Director (Operation) Major Shakil said that 23 units worked to control fire. Fire Services have taken a lot of time to reach the spot due to the narrow streets. It made it a bit difficult to control the fire. Regarding the source of fire and spreading rapidly, he said slum dwellers mostly work in garment factories. There was a junk of clothes and plenty of combustible substance in the house. As a result, the fire spread rapidly. Meanwhile, local MP Ilias Ali Mollah said almost all the houses in the slum were burnt. About 25 thousand people lived in these houses. Victims will be helped in every way.  Read more: 29 detained from several hotels due to anti-social activity Maharashtra farmers’ march reach Azad Maidan to meet CM Devendra Fadnavis FU