Promises by people holding high office to make it mandatory have remained only on paper
Frequent industrial accidents have raised public alarm with the talk of conducting safety audit of each and every hazardous, chemical, and process industry remaining an empty rhetoric for a long time.
People holding high office, including Ministers, have gone on record saying they would make safety audit mandatory since some fatal accidents in quick succession in 2012-13.
The end result: There is no let-up in rate of accidents. Whether safety audit or the talk of third-party audit before launching any facility, everything has been restricted only to paper.
After the massive fire that broke out at the bio-diesel unit of Biomax Fuels Limited at Visakhapatnam Special Economic Zone, which saw a fire-fighting exercise by over 200 men and 40 fire engines by using over 30,000 tonnes of foam and air-dropping of chemical fire balls by the naval copters, the State government directed the Collector to conduct industry-wise safety audit within two weeks.
Feasibility
There are doubts over feasibility of conducting industry-wise safety audit within such a short period as the AP Pollution Control Board, Fire Safety, and Factories Department are handicapped by severe shortage of hands.
Director-General of AP State Disaster Response and Fire Services T.A. Tripathi went on record saying Biomax had no proper fire safety system in place.
AP Pollution Control Board Chairman G.N. Phani Kumar, after inspecting the accident spot, gave “stop production” order to Biomax.
Finding fault with the Central Pollution Control Board for removing “critically polluted” tag to Visakhapatnam following pressure from the industrial lobby, former Government of India Secretary E.A.S. Sarma said the critically polluted industries would put Visakhapatnam on a powder keg.
At a glance
A cursory look at the accidents in the last three to four years reveals that there is no respite from either gas leakage or explosion or sudden outbreak of fire.
Explosion at oxygen pressure reduction station at Visakhapatnam Steel Plant on June 13, 2012, killed 19 employees. This was followed by cooling tower collapse at HPCL Visakh Refinery on August 27, 2013, which claimed 27 lives.
Three died in a blast at Hetero Drugs at Nakkapalli in 2013. VSP witnessed another fatal accident, wherein gas leakage claimed two lives in June 2014. A couple of fire accidents following burning of a warehouse and other facilities of Deccan Fine Chemicals at Rajavaram near Payakaraopeta, the recent fire at Divis Lab at Uppada killing three workers, and a spate of accidents at Jawaharlal Nehru Pharma City have put a question mark over safety preparedness.
Critically polluted industries put Visakhapatnam on a powder keg
E.A.S. Sarma
Former bureaucrat
