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Gurugram admin to carry out safety audits of labour-intensive industrial units
They said that the safety audit will be undertaken after the probe committee set up by Gurugram deputy commissioner Nishant Kumar Yadav submits its report about the incident. The committee was formed within a few hours of the blast and was told to submit its report within a week
Gurugram: The Gurugram district administration will get a safety audit done for all labour-intensive industrial units functional in the district in the aftermath of the explosions at a fire extinguisher ball manufacturing factory in Sector-104 last week, which left four people dead and another 12 critically injured, officials aware of the matter said.
They said that the safety audit will be undertaken after the probe committee set up by Gurugram deputy commissioner Nishant Kumar Yadav submits its report about the incident. The committee was formed within a few hours of the blast and was told to submit its report within a week.
Officials said that haphazard storage of explosive material or chemicals such as concentrated nitric or sulphuric acid may have been the cause of the explosions after the initial blaze.
Yadav said that the probe committee will establish the cause of the incident, fix responsibility and suggest preventive measures so that such incidents are not repeated in future. “Based on the report, directions will be issued to the industrial wing to carry out safety audits of those manufacturing units which are labour intensive so that such an incident can be avoided. Penal action will be taken if any unit is found flouting rules and regulations,” he said.
Officials aware of the matter said that the industries and the labour department will coordinate to carry out the safety audits.
Meanwhile, officials said that there were at least 1,664 industries or manufacturing units in Gurugram district which fall under ‘hazardous’ category and 2,649 more that fall under ‘non-hazardous’ category industries as per their categorization.
A senior government official said that the ‘hazardous’ industries need emphasis as the lives of workers are at higher risk in these places. “At least 6.12 lakh workers are engaged in these 1,664 ‘hazardous’ and 2,649 ‘non-hazardous’ industries which are government registered. However, the reality is that there are numerous more industries operational on the ground which are neither registered nor do they follow any kind of safety regulations,” he said.
Shiva Archan Sharma, assistant commissioner of police, West Gurugram, said that the arrested factory owner Sandeep Sharma didn’t have any no-objection certificate from HSIIDC, HSVP or the municipal corporation to establish and run the factory at the spot.
“He also didn’t have any explosives licence either. We were waiting for the forensic report to know which chemicals resulted in the explosions,” he said, adding the owner was presently in judicial custody.
Sharma said that during the investigation it emerged that the labels used in the fire extinguisher balls were still printed with contact details of a manager who had left the unit more than one year ago.
Officials said they have not been able to find any records of the factory to indicate that it was a registered one with the industry or the labour department.
“We don’t even know how many workers were engaged there. The factory was built on a mere 150 square yard plot. Due to the explosions, no demarcation of the structure was left as it was completely decimated with several other neighbouring industries,” a senior official said.
