155 shop owners of Rana Plaza passing hard days

Life has been utterly miserable for them after the collapse of Rana Plaza 14 months back, but neither the government nor anybody else has come forward with any support for the owners of the shops housed in that doomed building, reports UNB.
The building collapsed razing to the ground all the shops which, for most of the owners, were the sole sources of income generation.
They took loan from banks, sold off lands even homesteads and took goods from wholesalers without paying money to run their businesses only to face a harsh reality of losing all the investments in their shops.
Nuruzzaman Swapan, general secretary of Rana Plaza Bebsayee Kalyan Samity said there were at least 155 shops on the first and second floors of the nine-storey Rana Plaza, which collapsed on April 24 last year, killing at least 1,136 people.
The shop owners alleged that they had already tried in vain to draw the attention of the local MP, local administration, ministries concerned and even the Prime Minster Office (PMO) about their losses and demanded compensation for the disaster, but no one came forward with financial support other than giving assurances.
Ripon, a Rana Plaza shop owner who had invested Tk 3.0 lakh in his business, said he is now working as an employee in a private firm which pays him a monthly salary of only Tk 5,000.
He noted that he is the only bread earner for the family and it is tough to run a five-member family with the limited income.
Firoz, another shop owner, said, "No organisation has come forward for our rehabilitation. We observed hunger-strike thrice. We were supposed to stage a demonstration on the first anniversary, but didn't do as the local MP assured us of looking into the matter, but he did nothing for us."