The Toxics Watch Alliance, a non-governmental organisation, has written to Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel seeking a judicial probe into last month’s death of five workers at the Alang ship breaking yard in Bhavnagar district.
“In view of the recent deaths and injuries, and ongoing deaths and accidents since 1984, I seek your immediate intervention to ensure a judicial inquiry into the matter. It has been officially admitted by the office of the Director, Industrial Safety and Health [DISH], Government of Gujarat, that fatal accidents have been going on since 1984 without any legal remedy,” states the July 15 letter by Gopal Krishna of TWA.
Mr. Krishna has said that migrant casual workers live in “slave-like conditions” and nothing has been done so far to prevent their deaths.
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Calling Alang “a graveyard for workers,” the letter states that the Supreme Court’s order on complying with the norms laid down in the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal and other provisions of the Central government are being “violated with impunity.”
As per DISH data, 460 workers have lost their lives at Alang since 1984, Mr. Krishna has pointed out.
In the worst disaster in recent times, five labourers were killed and seven others injured in a gas leak and explosion at Alang on June 28. Police have filed an FIR against the ship breaker.
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Meanwhile, the Gujarat Maritime Board and the Gujarat Pollution Control Board are also conducting independent investigations. Recently, the National Human Rights Commission sought a report and issued notices to the Union Shipping Ministry and the Gujarat government over the death of workers.