After 17 deaths in industrial fires in Sonepat district, factories to be graded as per risk

Mukesh Tandon

Sonepat, June 26

Taking a serious note of recent fire incidents in which around 17 persons lost their lives in the district in the month of May, the administration has decided to put industries under three main categories – hyper-sensitive, medium-sensitive and low-sensitive — as per the fire hazard norms. The district administration has also decided to conduct random inspections of hyper-sensitive industries in the district.

Rai, Kundli mishaps to get ‘disaster’ tag

• The Sonepat DC said that recent fire incidents at factories in Rai and Kundli, in which 17 people had died, would be declared as “disasters”.
• This move will ensure that families of the unregistered labourers, who died in the incidents, also get compensation.

The Sonepat Deputy Commissioner said that recent fire incidents at factories in Rai and Kundli, in which a total of 17 people had died, would be declared as “disasters” and a letter would be sent to the Finance Commissioner regarding this. This move will ensure that families of the unregistered labourers, who died in the incidents, also get compensation.

The DC was reviewing the reports on industrial fire incidents during a meeting held in the mini-secretariat here today. The meeting focused on relief and rehabilitation of the fire accident victims. He said the safety audit of all factories was underway and if any shortcoming was found, strict action would be initiated.

He directed officials to find out whether the labourers who died in these incidents were registered under the Factories Act or not and to ensure that compensation is given to families.

The DC also directed the Civil Surgeon to collect details of treatment of injured labourers from the private hospitals on the rates of Ayushman Bharat scheme and directed Secretary, Red Cross, to ensure the payment of the bills of all the affected persons.

It was revealed during the meeting that there was a shortage of boiler operators in the industries due to which one trained operator worked in many industries as his name was shown as trained boiler operator in the documents while untrained operators were employed by the industries. Following this, the Deputy Commissioner directed that the list of all boiler operators should be made and details of which operator is working in which factory should be made available online.