Jhenidah's ghost of a station!

It is a mystery how a brand new fire station in Maheshpur, Jhenidah, inaugurated in December last year, should be fully equipped in terms of infrastructure and machinery but devoid of the staff required for it to operate. According to our correspondent in Jhenidah, the two lakh people in the upazila still have to call on the fire station from another upazila during emergencies like fire or road accidents. This even though there is a newly inaugurated fire station for the last 11 months!

The station had been built at a cost of Tk 95 lakh and includes a fire truck, rescue pick-up and two water pumps but the expensive equipment is lying idle as there is no one to operate it. So far around 14 fires and 11 road accidents have taken place in Maheshpur, according to official records, and all of them were handled by Kotchandpur upazila fire service instead of the one in Maheshpur. How logical is that? The sub-assistant director at Jhenidah Fire Service and Civil Defence says that he has requested the concerned ministry to appoint the necessary personnel to get the station up and running but so far nothing has happened.

Even the contractor has said that although he completed the project on time, the authorities are yet to take over the station and pay him his dues.

We are baffled by the apparent apathy towards such a vital infrastructure as a fire station that provides a service that saves lives and property. Having a brand new station so close by and not being able to get any service for it seems like a cruel joke on the people of Maheshpur. We hope the authorities will take note of this bizarre oversight and immediately recruit people so that the station can start operating.