2 weeks after Loutolim shipyard blaze, still no clarity on cause

Margao: Nearly two weeks after the fatal fire at Vijai Marine Services shipyard in Loutolim that claimed five lives, with two workers still battling for survival, the authorities remain unable or unwilling to explain what went wrong.The Oct 17 incident has now triggered bureaucratic finger-pointing. Additional collector II and in-charge of disaster management, Ramesh Gaonkar, said that the inspectorate of factories and boilers has not yet submitted any report. However, he said that the deputy collector and sub-divisional magistrate of Salcete, Ganesh Barve, has been directed to prepare a detailed report on the incident.Barve told TOI that he would investigate the matter from a disaster management perspective and submit his report within two days.Chief inspector of factories and boilers, Anant Pangam, whose department is the primary regulatory authority for the facility, said that the inquiry initiated by his department immediately after the accident is still under way. The firm was instructed to conduct a root cause analysis through a recognised occupational safety and health auditor and to submit an action-taken report in seven days. When asked whether the firm had submitted the compliance report, Pangam said he “needs to check”.South Goa collector, Egna Cleetus, told TOI that her office was “nowhere connected” to the incident, maintaining that the collectorate neither issued any permissions nor NOCs for the facility. “The inspectorate of factories and boilers has not submitted their report to me, and they are not required to submit it to me either,” Cleetus said. However, she acknowledged that she could “simply call for a report” but added that she lacks the “powers to impose anything on the firm”.