ROURKELA: The Sundargarh administration on Thursday reviewed adherence to safety protocols in industries and mines, stressing the need to plug loopholes for prevention of mishaps.
The move comes in wake of the death of three contractual workers who were buried alive following collapse of a coal bunker in the boiler area of the captive power plant of Dalmia Cement Bharat Ltd (DCBL) at Rajgangpur on January 16.
The meeting presided over by Sundargarh collector Manoj Satyawan Mahajan was attended by senior administrative and police officers along with authorities of industries and mines operating in the district.
Expressing concern over the prevailing situation, the collector asked the representatives of industries to strengthen safety management system and ensure immediate detection of unsafe structures, equipment or practices for corrective actions. The meeting laid stress on external safety audit and enhancing frequencies of regular safety inspections with a warning that laxity in adherence to safety guidelines would not be tolerated.
As lack of accurate data about the casualties in DCBL mishap led to a law and order situation, the meeting asked industrial houses to appoint designated officers to ensure flow of correct information. Emphasis was also laid on proper communication with different stakeholders in fighting potentially harmful misinformation and rumours.
Among others, Rourkela ADM Ashuosh Kulkarni, Sundargarh SP Pratyush Diwakar, ADM (Revenue) Abhimanyu Majhi, deputy director of factories and boilers Bibhu Prasad, joint labour commissioner Pranab Jena, sub-collectors of Sundargarh, Panposh and Bonai were present.
In the last two years, at least 24 workers have died in different industrial mishaps across the district. Majority of the deceased persons were contractual workers while the industries where the mishaps took place were of all sizes starting from MSME units to mother industries like Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP).
In January 2021, four contractual workers had died of poisoning inside RSP after getting exposed to carbon monoxide (CO) gas at the coal chemical department during maintenance operation.