Failure to ensure safety in industries in AP, but no action on factories officials

Vijayawada: Andhra Pradesh has experienced a series of industrial mishaps claiming the lives of several workers due to companies’ non-compliance with safety norms. But, stunningly, no action has been initiated against the errant officials of the factories’ department so far. Massive corruption is suspected to be a reason.

The state government had initiated safety inspections on hazardous industries. Factories department officials and those from other line departments were involved in these. They did several inspections and started a special drive on safety soon after the LG Polymers styrene gas leak in Visakhapatnam in May, 2020. However, there is no let-up in industrial mishaps in the state.

Notably, mishaps are occurring even in non-hazardous industries. The recent mishap claiming seven lives in an edible oil packing unit at G Ragampeta village of Peddapuram mandal, Kakinada district, was blamed on blatant violation of safety norms.

Factories authorities cite the excuse that they are facing a shortage of field- level officers. They also defend the staff by saying that “penalising the existing field staff for such mishaps will result in a further lack of manpower to do the inspections.” This, they warn, would jeopardize the industrial safety further.

State factories department director Chandrasekhar Varma said, “We are concerned about the rising number of industrial mishaps. But, penalising our field officers or suspending them will not change the attitude of the erring management.”

“We are coming up with an action plan by studying the models of other states on how to prevent industrial mishaps in our state and would make a comprehensive plan. Moreover, we are booking cases against firms that are failing to comply with safety norms after inspections and initiating prosecution against them.” However, he was not ready to cite the number of prosecutions, if any, initiated so far.

On the other hand, the factories authorities are allegedly trying to scuttle the investigations. They are asking the officers who failed in their duty to supervise the industries, to probe cases of industrial mishaps. These officials, who are allegedly notorious for bribe-taking, might cover up the lapses of errant industries and help them avoid facing penal action.

This is unlike the practice being adopted in other departments where inquiries are conducted by senior officers from other places.

Meanwhile, the inquiry report on mishap at the edible oil firm at G Ragampeta village came up with startling facts. It said the company failed to obtain a licence and also did not obtain plan approvals for the setting up of storage tanks, oil filling machinery and other equipment.

A series of failures were also cited, like not having the manhole cover of adequate size for the oil storage tank and lack of steps to remove toxic gasses before allowing workers to step inside the tank to do the cleaning.

Other safety drills were also not followed. A rope was not secured around the waist of the workers who stepped into the tank for the cleaning job. Had it been there, it would have helped in pulling them up in case of trouble. There were no D-rings to the ladders, no standard fire hydrant system and no bottom manhole point to the storage tanks to help workers enter inside them for sludge cleaning and so on.