Industrial police force in the offing

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FE Report
The government has decided to raise an industrial police force to protect readymade garment sector from repeated unrest, which has cost the country's main export earner billions of dollars in the last several years.
The decision came in an inter-ministerial meeting at the home ministry Wednesday chaired by the Home Minister Advocate Sahara Khatun.
"We've decided to form the industrial police shortly to face any unwanted situation in the sector, particularly the apparel sector," Sahara Khatun told reporters after the meeting.
The meeting also formed a seven-member high-profile committee for the formation of the specialised police force accommodating firefighters and Ansar members for maintaining law and order in the country's four industrial belts---Ashulia, Savar, Gazipur and Narayanganj where most of the RMG (readymade garment) units are located.
The committee, led by additional secretary of the ministry Golam Hossain, was also asked to submit its findings on raising the special police force by February 28.
The home minister said the meeting has discussed the formation of the new police force with the inclusion of firefighters and Ansar men for effective functioning of the force.
She said her ministry had earlier explained the necessity of such specialised force to the finance ministry.
The home ministry sought 3,000 members for deployment in the force and 2,200 members initially. But the establishment ministry approved a 1,580 member-strong force for manning the industrial belts, the minister said.
The industrial police force would consist of four separate units to be primarily deployed in four major industrial zones -- Ashulia, Savar, Gazipur, and Narayanganj -- at an expenditure of Tk 200 million.
In the wake of violent workers' unrest apparel producers have long been demanding a separate police force as the existing police force has failed to protect their units from vandalism during violence.
In June 2009 hundreds of workers at Ashulia Industrial area vandalised dozens of factories demanding outstanding wages and overtime bills in the presence of law enforcers that forced the garment manufactures to shut down their units.
Two workers were killed and hundreds of others injured during the three-day-long unrest.
According to the BGMEA (Bangladesh Garment Manufactures and Exporters Association), the apparel apex body, last year's unrest cost the sector Tk 5 billion in loss.