16 dead at Vizag Steel: CSE says tragedy
inevitable because of the
plant’s poor safety record
plant’s poor safety record
CSE’s Green Rating
Project had warned Vizag Steel to
shore up its safety measures
shore up its safety measures
June 13,
2012
New Delhi, June 14,
2012: The recent tragedy at Visakhapatnam Steel
Plant (Vizag Steel), where 16 people died in the worst ever accident in a steel
plant in India, was waiting to happen, says Centre for Science and Environment
(CSE). In its recently released green rating of the Indian steel sector, CSE had
drawn the attention of Vizag Steel to its abysmal safety
record.
In fact, the Green
Rating Project (GRP) survey has revealed that over 144 people died in the period
2007-2010 in 17 of the 21 steel plants which the survey studied. Poor
occupational safety management system was found as a clear area of concern. Says
Chandra Bhushan, CSE deputy director general and head of its industry and
pollution programme, “The latest accident at Vizag Steel is symptomatic of the
overall safety and health situation in the Indian steel
industry.”
During the
three-years period of the CSE-GRP study, it was found that more than 50 people
die every year in major steel plants of the country. It also found that the
steel industry of India has one of the worst safety performances in the
world.
Iron and steel
plants involve several complex processes with hazardous working conditions that
require skilled understanding of the safety hazards. The existing safety
monitoring and coordinating structures such as Directorate General of Factory
Advice Service and Labour Institutes (DGFASLI) which comes under the Union
ministry of labour, the steel industry association called Joint Committee on
Safety, Health and Environment in the Steel Industry (JCSSI) and the labour
commissioners in the state governments lack expertise or enforcement capacity to
regulate safety measures in steel plants. It was also clearly found that OHSAS
18001 certification does not have any correlation with the safety records of
these plants. This is why existing institutional structures have completely
failed to reduce accident rates in the sector.
Says Bhushan, “As
concluded in the GRP study and given the latest unfortunate incident at Vizag
Steel, it is again being recommended by CSE that a specialist regulatory body
needs to be put in place to supervise, enforce, train, enhance disclosure and
improve the overall safety performance of the sector. Strengthening of the
existing laws of the 1948 Factories Act under which steel industry safety is
being currently regulated is also called for.”
He adds: “The
institutional mechanism and laws of the country are severely constrained to
manage/supervise safety and health performance of the steel
sector.”
No comments:
Post a Comment