Factory owner told to pay damages

AT A time when police are going extremely soft in taking on those responsible for eight lives in massive Becongunj fire, the labour department has woken up to real exigency. The department on Wednesday shot off notices to the owner of sole making factory asking him to deposit Rs 23.50 lakh as damages to victims? families.

AT A time when police are going extremely soft in taking on those responsible for eight lives in massive Becongunj fire, the labour department has woken up to real exigency. The department on Wednesday shot off notices to the owner of sole making factory asking him to deposit Rs 23.50 lakh as damages to victims’ families.

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The strong move comes when the police were expected to register a criminal case against the factory owner Hafiz Ghyasuddin. The DIG (range) Daljeet Chowdhary apparently peeved at number of causalities and sheer negligence had given his go ahead for the case registration. Though, 24 hours have passed but the police couldn’t decide on this point.

But the labour department decided to turn the heat on factory management so as to provide some monetary succor to the victims and their families. The additional labour commissioner CL Maurya dispatched the notice under the provisions of Workman Compensation Act, 1923.

Notice asked the factory owner ordered to deposit Rs 23.50 lakh in the department within 24 hours. In case of non-compliance, the department will be liable to register the case and initiate recovery proceedings after completion of two hearings. The decision, departmental sources said, was taken up following an inquiry found the factory management violating all the norms.

“Eight persons lost their lives and nine are still battling with death. The department thinks they must be compensated adequately and the factory owner be penalised for his wrongdoings,” the sources said. The police on the other hand have a different story to take up the entire issue and squarely blames the directorate of industries.

“Our problem is no one is forthcoming and for that matter no one really wants to lodge a complaint. We can only act when we have something in our hands,” said a senior official. He said as well why only the police are being criticised and not the DI that must explain how come a factory was being run in a residential area.“Every department has a specified role to play and such a incident could have been prevented if the DI had played its role transparently,” the official said. When contacted, the SSP PC Meena said a magisterial inquiry was underway and the police will act on its findings.