Merchants Oppose Demolition of Remaining Parts of Plasco Building

One day after the news of the beginning of construction for the new Plasco building in Tehran in Bahman, the representative of the merchants of this building announced on Saturday, January 30, the anniversary of the fire on Jomhouri Street, that shopkeepers oppose the demolition of the remaining parts for the renovation of the structure. The Plasco commercial complex on Jomhouri Street in Tehran completely collapsed on January 30 last year following a massive fire, killing 16 firefighters and six employees of the building. Now, on the anniversary of this event, the head of the Tailors Union and representative of the Plasco merchants criticized the 'lack of accountability' of officials and the failure to provide loans to the victims, stating that shopkeepers in the northern part of the Plasco building oppose the demolition of this section, which survived the fire. According to the Iranian Labor News Agency, ILNA, 'In all parts of the five-story northern Plasco, all shops and stores are intact and fully operational.' On Friday, the Iranian Students News Agency, ISNA, reported the groundbreaking for the new building, stating that 'to prevent a new incident, the five-story northern Plasco will be demolished.' ISNA cited the 'severe vulnerability of the building to earthquakes and lack of safety' as the reason for the decision to demolish the remaining parts of the Plasco building. In response, the same news agency reported on Saturday, citing Mojtaba Doroudian, the representative of the Plasco merchants, saying, 'Do the owners of those 286 units allow this building to be demolished and the groundbreaking for its reconstruction to take place without a contract with them?' On the other hand, Ali Fazeli, head of the Chamber of Guilds, stated that 'the Foundation of the Oppressed has no need to contract with the Plasco residents who have 286 units in the northern Plasco building and have not yet been demolished.' Previously, the head of the Foundation of the Oppressed announced that if permission is granted and necessary preparations are made, it can be expected that the new Plasco building 'will be constructed and operational within two years.' In the early days after the fire incident, promises were made to shopkeepers regarding loans, which reports indicate 'there has been no news of it until today.' In this regard, ILNA quoted one of the merchants saying, 'Regarding the loan, I must say that the loan was just a promise to calm the atmosphere and emotions stirred in the early days of the incident.' Meanwhile, families of the firefighters who lost their lives in the incident, whose photos are now displayed on the walls of Plasco, are also complaining about why their names have not been registered as 'martyr families' so they can benefit from the advantages of this title. Mojtaba Doroudian, the representative of the Plasco merchants, also mentioned the promised loan that only one shopkeeper has been able to benefit from after a year. Mr. Doroudian, while complaining that many promises made from the first day regarding the Plasco building are unclear about where they have gone and who is responsible for accountability, stated that, for example, 'It was decided to provide the affected Plasco merchants with 300 million tomans in low-interest bank loans under the conditions approved in that session of the government; however, after a year... finally last week one of the merchants was able to use this loan after extensive follow-ups.' The Plasco commercial complex in Tehran had 1,200 units, of which 560 were active according to statistics. According to estimates, 15 trillion rials in damages have been inflicted on these units, and 3,000 workers are unemployed, with only half of these workers insured, as announced by Taghi Nourbakhsh, head of the Social Security Organization.