Officials compromised safety norms

BELGAUM: If it needs an accident to set right things and the subsequently close industrial units for ignoring safety norms, then the Riddhi Siddhi Gluco Biois factory at Gokak, near here, has set a precedent.
The factory had been ignoring safety norms for long, but came to light only after the blast there, in which, so far, eight employees died and over 25 suffered burns.
The tragedy is a pointer to the fact that officials of the departments concerned compromised the safety of the employees in connivance with the management. Organisations that staged protests at the factory premises in Gokak, have demanded that officials of these departments be prosecuted.
Reports by departments, entrusted with ensuring safety at Riddhi Siddhi, show that the factory had not been conforming to the norms. Neither the employees nor the security personnel were trained in fire-fighting and more than the permitted number of workers were employed. Fire-fighting equipment had not been maintained and employees were not provided the Employees State Insurance medical benefits.
The factory has been violating pollution norms for long but the department has never acted against the lapses where as in this modern era pollution norms are needed to be adhered strictly.
Riddhi Siddhi has been functioning since the early 90s has been violating all the safety measures as officials of the departments concerned never cared to inspect them, indicating connivance of officials with the factory management. The district magistrate’s order does not state that the departments (except the Factories and Boilers Department) carried out earlier inspections.
Among the enforcing government agencies, which had to keep a tab on the factory, only the Factories and Boilers Department had filed a case in 2006 for violating security norms. Until then it was also a silent spectator.
The fire department has said that the equipment was not in working condition. Also the factory does not have a road accessible to water canons.
Labour department officials never inspected the factory, say local leaders. The Karnataka Rakshana Vedike district unit president Rajeev Topannavar has warned of protests in the premises of the deputy commissioners/district magistrate’s offices if the officials were not prosecuted.