A number of people, including women and children, were killed when a factory building located in a dense residential locality collapsed due to a boiler explosion. The other houses adjacent to the factory also collapsed.

One resident of the area on a TV channel show claimed that since 2005, he has been informing various government departments that the factory is illegally working in residential area, which put in danger the lives of the people, he also submitted a petition to the Lahore High Court, which was dismissed by a judge in 2007.

Now the preterit question is who is responsible for the death of poor workers? The minister and the secretary of the Punjab Labour Department, Industries Department, DCO of Lahore District, Inspector of Boiler or the Judge of the High Court who did not order the removal of factory from the residential area.

There are thousands of factories which are operating in various residential areas of the city. This is a glaring example of failure of government departments, whose employees are paid by public money, and who are expected to work for the welfare and safety of the general public. The Chief Minister of Punjab has been criticising the federal government for its bad governance. He is even charging the federal government with conspiracy for the death of the people due to dengue epidemic and by spurious drugs used in the Punjab Institute of Cardiology.

The chief mkinister of Punjab is not prepared to accept his prime responsibility to protect the lives and property of the people living in Punjab. He considered that by sharing the responsibility or devolving the power is not in the interest of the people.Instead of informing the government department and restructuring their organisation by introducing latest methods of public administration, he is depending on a few bureaucrats governing the largest province of the country with 62 per cent population of the country, due to his style of governance the people are victims.

The Chief Minister should understand that times have changed, and without changing the working of government departments and selecting the right man for the job the problems faced by the people will be not solved by just slogans and speeches.

S.T. HUSSAINLahore