Giaspura Gas Tragedy: Investigation finds loose ends in sewer testing on day of incident

Tribune News Service

Nitin Jain

Ludhiana, July 5

In what appears to be a major lapse in multiple inquiries conducted so far into the Giaspura incident, in which 11 people, including five of a family, died due to toxic gas leakage from a manhole on April 30, the magisterial probe has pointed out that the exact ambient conditions in sewers were not tested on the day of the tragedy, which cannot be recreated now.

“However, this does not mean that no deductions could be drawn from the facts already furnished based on the existing test reports,” said the SDM (West), Harjinder Singh, in his report submitted to the Deputy Commissioner, Surabhi Malik.

Taking cognisance of the incident, the DC had ordered a magisterial inquiry and constituted a committee of officers, led by the SDM (West) and comprising officials concerned of the Punjab Pollution Control Board, Municipal Corporation, Deputy Director (Factories) and the Commissionerate Police.

In his 243-page report, a copy of which is with The Tribune, the SDM (West) pointed out certain incongruencies in interpretations by various stakeholders on salient questions to be answered and presented a set of its own inferences.

Without ruling out any factor, meaning thereby that probably all factors have been individually or collectively responsible for the major tragedy, the inquiry officer recommended certain remedial actions.

The report mentioned that hydrogen sulphide (H2S) poisoning was corroborated by medical, forensic evidence and gas detectors as well.

“It was noted that there was a dead cat on the ground floor, but a dog in the same building upstairs survived. This adds on to the theory of formation of a deadly gas blanket with highest concentrations at ground level as H2S gas is typically denser and heavier than air. Among the sewer gases, H2S fits these characteristics the best,” the SDM reported.

He said certain suspicious items in containers were seized by the police and the test results regarding their composition were still awaited. Similarly, all 11 chemical analysis reports were also pending from the State Chemical Laboratory in Kharar.

However, test results received from the Punjab Biotechnology Incubator Laboratory in Mohali has showed unnaturally high amount of iron (718 and 899 mg per litre) in sewers at two particular manhole points in proximity to the tragedy points, which were much higher than general standards of 3 mg per litre concentration as per the Environment Protection Rules.

The magisterial probe reported that sewer water at tragedy points was more acidic than in upstream and downstream samples, which does not negate the possibility there were industrial effluents that had accumulated over time in these sewers, may be on account of the structural peculiarities of these points.

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