Rewari blast: NSC urged to hold safety audit of factory

Tribune News Service

Ravinder Saini

Rewari, April 18

The district administrative authorities have urged the Director General, National Safety Council of India (NSC), to constitute a committee for a full-scale safety audit of M/s Lifelong Auto Private Limited in Dharuhera town here and a comprehensive inquiry into dust collection explosion in the company, which led to death of 16 workers and injured 23 others on March 16.

Deputy Commissioner (DC) Rahul Hooda has disclosed this in a report submitted to the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Tuesday. The NGT, while taking a suo motu action into the matter on the basis of media reports, had directed the district authorities to file a reply in this regard.

Request accepted

The National Safety Council has accepted the request to conduct a safety audit of the premises of M/s Lifelong Auto Private Limited in Dharuhera. —Rahul Hooda, Deputy commissioner, Rewari

“The NSC has accepted the request through email to conduct a thorough safety audit of the premises of the company but it has intimated that the fee for conducting the audit, including professional fee, lodging/boarding and travel cost of its experts will be charged. It has been endorsed and sent to Assistant Director, Industrial Safety, and Health Officer, Rewari, and Assistant Labour Commissioner, Rewari, for information and further proceedings,” stated the reply.

The DC further said a joint committee of district officials was also formed to ascertain the cause behind the incident on March 17. In its report, the committee stated that prima facie, the reason was identified as a spark either from short circuit or from metal grinding polishing, causing an explosion due to the presence of huge fine metal dust in dust collectors. Several other violations were also observed in the report.

The NGT had also sought the information regarding the number of injured, fatal cases as well as periodical inspection reports and compensation, if any, provided to the affected employees from Assistant Director (Safety and Health), Regional Officer, Haryana State Pollution Control Board and Fire Officer, Rewari.

In his reply, Assistant Director (Safety and Health) Rewari said a total of 39 workers were injured in the incident and 16 of them lost their lives, four were still admitted to the PGIMS, Rohtak, while 19 were discharged after treatment. The management of the company is bearing all treatment cost of the injured workers.

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