Despite off-repeated talk of safety audit, industrial accidents continue to happen in Visakhapatnam - the main industrial hub of Andhra Pradesh.
Tuesday’s incident at Azico Biophore, one of the active units at the Jawaharlal Nehru Pharma City (JNPC) at Parawada killed two workers and injured three. Accidents are occurring in various pharma, process or chemical units at regular intervals raising public alarm now and then.
The ‘stop production’ notice issued to five companies, including Azico Biophore by the A.P. Pollution Control Board last year for not adhering to waste disposal, was revoked a few months later, sources told The Hindu .
Though the government authorities repeatedly issued statements to make third party auditing a must for all chemical and process plants, it is yet to become a reality.
A routine review by the then Director General of Police had also revealed that most of the industries have not obtained ‘no-objection certificate’ for fire safety.
Some of the major incidents that occurred in Visakhapatnam include oxygen pressure reduction station blast at the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant killing 19 persons on June 13, 2012; HPCL Visakh Refinery fire which claimed 27 lives on August 23, 2013; Hetero Drugs fire near Nakkapalli; and a series of accidents at the Pharma City at Srikar Laboratories, Sainar Pharma and Divi’s Lab at Chippada near Bhimilipatnam.
Incidentally, the fire at Biomax Fuels Ltd at the Visakhapatnam Special Economic Zone last year was so massive that it created panic among all industrial workers.
The fire had to be combated by over 200 men and 40 fire-tenders. More than 30,000 tonne of foam was airdropped using naval helicopters after an aerial reconnaissance.
The safety manual proposed sometime ago has remained on paper. In most of the fatal accidents, the managements have not made public the action taken reports. Trade unions allege that it has become a matter of practice to hold innocent employees scapegoats in major incidents.
“Industrial accidents causing injury and loss of life to workers and people in north coastal A.P. have become more a rule than an exception during the last several years. Yet another accident took place on Tuesday at the JNPC where several workers have received grievous injuries. The promoters of that industrial unit deserve condemnation,” remarked social activist and former IAS officer E.A.S. Sarma.
He said that any responsible government would try to draw lessons from each accident, put in place more rigorous systems of safety and continuously enhance industrial safety, whereas in A.P. the reverse has been the case. These units are not only guilty of infringement of the safety norms but also guilty of violation of the pollution norms.
No deterrent action
Mr. Sarma said that by now the State government ought to have taken deterrent action against the officers responsible for industrial safety and prosecuted the promoters and senior managers of the industrial units where accidents took place.
“Not a single senior officer in charge of industrial safety in the State has been suspended and not a single promoter/officer of the accident-stricken industrial unit arrested/ prosecuted. The reason for this is the close nexus between the political leadership in the State and the industry promoters. Both need to be brought to book for the collective criminality involved in this sordid saga of accidents,” he said.
