They also stressed proper implementation of the laws to ensure rights of the workers engaged in ship breaking.

Ship breaking is making a great contribution to the country's economy side by side with creating a huge employment opportunity and providing the government with a huge amount of revenue, they said.

But, the workers of the ship breaking sector are being deprived of their rights since the sector is yet to get an industrial shape, the speakers added.

Young Power in Social Action (YPSA), a non-government organisation in the port city, organised the meeting titled 'Ship breaking industry and current situation' at Chittagong District Council auditorium in the afternoon.

Bangladesh Economic Association, Chittagong Chapter President Professor Sikander Khan was the key speaker at the meeting moderated by Dr Shafique Haider, former teacher of Chittagong University (CU) Zoology Department.

CU Institute of Marine Sciences and Fisheries Professor Dr Maruf Hossain, the Bhorer Kagoj Chittagong Bureau Chief Omar Kaiser, local daily Suprabhat Bangladesh Chief Reporter M Nasirul Haq and YPSA Coordinator Mohammad Ali Shahin spoke at the meeting.

The speakers said that around 20000 people are directly involved with the sector while 2.5 lakh people depend on it.

The workers are working in the yards without any safety measures that claimed around 1,000 lives and left some 23000 people injured and crippled in the last decade, they said.

Unplanned growth of the sector, lack of proper policy and non-implementation of laws caused massive pollution of air, water and soil posing a threat to aquatic animals and public health in the coastal area of Sitakunda, they observed.

They demanded the caretaker government should take immediate steps in this regard.