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Directorate of Factories didn’t know about the unit
Divisional Commissioner summons factory records
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‘Shifting of patients from Civil Hospital to invite legal action’
Free treatment, health cards for injured: Binni Mahajan
Cow charred to death
UGC approves grant for research project
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Directorate of Factories didn’t know about the unit
Jalandhar, April 19 In an alleged cover-up, the department challaned the factory for an array of violations two days later the mishap had occurred. The unit had been operating illegally since 2007 on an area measuring 2,500 square yards and over 2,000 workers used to work there in shifts. “We did not know about the very existence of the industrial unit till the mishap occurred. In fact, we have no mechanism to know about the existence of an industrial unit on our own. The Factory Act makes it mandatory for an owner to intimate us about his unit after starting operations. Only then we do the basic inspection,” said Directorate of Factories Deputy Director Parmal Singh. Moreover, the department, he claimed, was short-staffed as there were only six deputy directors for all the entire state. “There are so many industrial units. It is not practically feasible to check all of them….My office doesn’t even have a telephone and I don’t have any official vehicle to conduct inspections,” he said. However, he assured of a probe into the violations and action against the factory owner. Meanwhile, sources said the building collapse could have been caused due to over-burdening of the structure owing to the installation of heavy machinery on three floors of the building without any prior clearance. The building, sources said, used to tremble whenever heavy machinery was turned on.
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Divisional Commissioner summons factory records
Jalandhar, April 19 INTUC seeks compensation
The district unit of the Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) has constituted a four-member committee to redress the compensation cases of labourers who were injured or killed in the Shital Fibres factory collapse. State president of INTUC said the four-member committee would be headed by chairman Amrik Singh Gill also the district president of the council Sohal Lal Bawa, Sarwan Singh from the Ludhiana unit and Sarabjit Singh. The committee would pursue the compensation cases of the labourers. INTUC also demanded a probe by a retired judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court into the
incident.
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Juvenile labourers made to overwork at factory
Jalandhar, April 19 The closest that someone has come to saying something concrete is that the owners will be prosecuted “if” it is found that minors worked there. Though the Labour Department has issued some challans to the factory regarding various irregularities, the issue of juvenile labourers doesn’t even find mention among these. With the rescue of a couple of juvenile victims and yet others still being buried under the debris, questions have been raised about the state of affairs at the factory. Juveniles like 16-year-old Niyamat and 15-year-old Sanjeev, who was rescued at 1 am on Wednesday, and Jai Prakash (16), also a survivor, have all said they were working at the factory for 12-hour-long shifts. Talking to The Tribune, Niyamat, admitted to the Civil Hospital, said, “I am 15-16 year old. There were many more juveniles. Some younger than me. I knew one who was certainly about 13 or 14.” Hailing from a village in Jharkhand, Niyamat was getting about Rs 4,000 per month. Devender Sahay from Muzzafarpur village in Bihar said a boy from his village, Sulender, working at the factory, was 15-year-old. Amarjit Singh, a labourer from Ara, said his relative Kareeman, who died on Tuesday afternoon, was 16-year-old and joined Shital Fibres six months ago. Sanjeev, who was rescued at 1 am on Wedensday, said, “I was made to work for 12 hours. Once a week, I worked for 24 hours and then my shift would change.” Did he get an off after working for 24 hours? “No,” he says, “We had to return the next day on the night shift. We got only a 12-hour breather.” Labour Commissioner Punjab, Parbhjot Singh Mand, when contacted, said, “The Labour Department has already initiated prosecution proceedings against Shital Fibres. We have asked the factory authorities to provide us with records of attendance, holidays, etc, but since they were unable to do so, a complaint has been filed at the CJM’s court against them.” When asked whether the administration was trying to procure the data it had demanded from the factory, he said, “We have done our bit, but action can only be taken if records show any irregularities. Since there are no records, we have no data regarding irregularities. But we will subsequently plan action on the matter.” When asked what the administration was doing regarding the reports of child labourers working at the factory, he said, “We will verify the age group of children and take action accordingly.” When asked whether the Labour Department was planning action if children below the age of 18 years were found to be working in the factory, he said, “The Labour Department is not responsible for children below the age of 18 years because according to the Labour Act, only an individual below the age of 14 years is a child.” Deputy Director, Factories, Parampal Singh, when contacted on the issue of child labour, said, “We will work along with the Labour Department to deal with the issue of child labour.” “He said under the Juvenile Justice Act, we can only take action against the employer, if children below the age of 18 years had been working at the factory for more than four hours daily.” Labourers allege maltreatment
Work or torture?
Some labourers said, “If someone dozed off while working in the night, it was guaranteed that their payment for the coming two days was cut. The labourers were not paid for the half-hour period, in which they eat food. There were times when the factory announced a compensation for a labourer who died during work. This compensation came out of our pockets. Rs 100 per labourer was cut from our wages to give the compensation. If someone made a mistake, it wasn’t uncommon to be beaten up either.” The age of Niyamat was confirmed to be 16 by SMO of the Trauma Ward Dr MB Bali on Monday. But the fresh new list of the ward has now mysteriously increased his age to 25. |
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‘Shifting of patients from Civil Hospital to invite legal action’
Jalandhar, April 19 The accused and the owner of the industrial unit, Shital Vij, is the chairman of the charitable hospital. The hospital staff, as per reports, was indulged in shifting the injured from the Civil Hospital to Sri Devi Talab Hospital and then sending them to their home states. Mahajan, who was in the city today to meet the injured undergoing treatment at the Civil Hospital and the Devi Talab hospital, directed the Civil Surgeon to constitute a panel of doctors to monitor the daily activity and improvement of patients undergoing treatment at the charitable hospital. She also directed Civil Surgeon Dr Avtar Chand to shift the injured workers to the Civil Hospital if they were not attended to at the Devi Talab hospital. The secretary directed the authorities to ensure that no injured worker was shifted to the Devi Talab hospital and if needed be, all tests, including the CT Scan and MRI tests should be conducted at the expense of the Civil Hospital for which funds were available with the Civil Surgeon. Ironically, the Civil Hospital is a secondary hospital and has no facility of the CT Scan and the MRI. The Civil Hospital authorities had shifted a patient to the charitable hospital for the CT Scan, but he never returned to the Civil Hospital. She asked the Commissioner, Jalandhar division, Anurag Verma and Deputy Commissioner Priyank Bharati to look into the issue of child labour employed at Shital Fibres.
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Free treatment, health cards for injured: Binni Mahajan
Jalandhar, April 19 Kohar said it would be ensured that the affected labourers get their salaries from the factory authorities. Binny Mahajan, Principal Secretary, Health, said health cards would be issued to patients injured in the disaster. She said the injured would be treated free of cost in the future also. She asked the Civil Hospital authorities to provide funds if the injured needed to be treated at a private hospital. She said free artificial limbs will also be provided to the victims. Jalandhar Divisional Commissioner Anurag Verma, Deputy Commissioner Priyank Bharti, Deputy Commissioner Police Tulsi Ram and Civil Surgeon Avtar Chand were also present. Food finally
Injured workers at the Civil Hospital heaved a sigh of relief following the visit of the Principal Secretary, Health. Some of the labourers, especially those without money, had not eaten a morsel for the past some days. No doctors seen
Even as the dignitaries visited Shri Devi Talab Charitable Hospital on Thursday, there were no doctors to attend to the injured workers. Only the paramedical staff and nurses were present. VIP treatment
Though there are reports wherein patients crib about the quality of treatment at the Civil Hospital and the Devi Talab hospital, the continuous string of VIPs visiting these hospitals made their lives better. Patients got to sleep in brand new sheets with ACs on. At the Devi Talab hospital, trays were covered with yellow paper to make the ward look cleaner. At the Civil Hospital’s trauma ward, sheets were cleaner on Thursday. At the Devi Talab hospital, juice, fruit and biscuits
are constantly supplied to patients. |
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Rescuing victims alive biggest motivation for Army
Jalandhar, April 19 Following this motivation, the teams of the Army as well as the NDRF have now expedited the rescue work with a changed strategy to locate those trapped under the debris of four-storeyed Shital Fibres - a blanket-manufacturing unit. Even yesterday, when Army jawans successfully rescued a labourer, Nitesh, after 72 hours from the collapsed factory debris, the jawans virtually celebrated the occasion. Commanding Officer of 103 Engineer Regiment Col Simarjeet Singh said, “Off course those moments were nothing short of victory as our jawans brought out Nitesh safely after putting in cautious and well-planned efforts.” While the Army has now started making deep “square passages” at various points of the debris to reach inside and locate those trapped alive or dead, the NDRF on the other hand has been heavily relying on their life detectors to catch signs of any “life” under the concrete rubble. Such is the planning of the engineers’ regiment that it make its jawans work in shifts and send around two to three of them in one passage at one point of time as the issue of “self safety” is foremost. “Since it is all concrete inside, there is less oxygen and we need to conduct the rescue work keeping in mind the security of our men too, hence the use of fans for air and a few men inside,” he added. Col Simarjeet Singh said they were using special equipment, like rock drill, grinders and gas cutters, to clear the debris and make passage. “We first plan and then execute the rescue work as the concern is saving more lives. We are hopeful and believe that by the end we would be able to rescue more people alive,” he added. On the other hand, Commandant of 7th Battalion of the NDRF, RK Verma maintained that his team had been digging out separate passages in addition to the ones made by the Army to expedite the work. “We are going slow in the rescue work and would never use a JCB machine to dig out body, hence the decision to cut the concrete and pull out maximum bodies intact,” he added. Commandant Verma said there were scores of relatives of labourers who had been waiting anxiously to see their loved ones alive. “We are also using ‘victim-locating cameras’ to locate bodies from under the debris. The moment we receive a signal that a body lies trapped, we immediately change the process of rescue work as pulling out the body intact and handing it to the family is of utmost importance for us,” he added.
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Cow charred to death
Jalandhar, April 19 The tragedy occurred when dry wheat piled adjacent to a cattle shelter caught fire at about 3 pm and winds spread the flames to the nearby wheat hay stock. The farm house owner, Sukhdev Singh, claimed that his domestic help noticed the smoke billowing out of the hay but by the time they tried to extinguish the blaze it spread to the nearby areas. Aided by the wind, the fire spread to nearby area where five head of milch cattle, including four cows, were tethered. One cow was charred to death, while three lost their eyesight and sustained burns. The exact cause of fire could not be ascertained. An eyewitness, Raj Atwal, said an announcement was made from the village gurdwara asking the
villagers to swing into rescue operation. Holding buckets, scores of the villages reached the spot and put off the blaze with water and sand. In the meantime someone informed the fire brigade and a fire tender reached the spot but by then the fire was almost under control. A police party form nearby police station reached the spot and started investigating the matter. No case has been
registered till the filing of the report. |
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from colleges Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, April 19 The grant was approved on the basis of the recommendations of the expert committee, which assessed the proposal of Sudesh Sehgal for her minor research project, titled “Changing food patterns - fast food/junk food/street food/processed food and their effect on nutritional status of adolescent girls.” Cataract operationsThe In-Vogue Club of the Postgraduate Department of Fashion Designing of Kanya Maha Vidyalaya (KMV) organised a voluntary social service in association with the Civil Hospital. Two women, two men and two mentally challenged persons were operated for removing cataract.
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Jalandhar, April 19
