AI Structured Summary
Not yet generated for this judgment
Judgment
This matter has been put up for consideration of action taken reports dated 29.10.2021 filed by CPCB and dated 27.10.2021 filed by State of Gujarat, in pursuance of order of this Tribunal dated 11.06.2021.
By the said order, the Tribunal dealt with the issue of compliance of safety norms by UPL Ltd. (United Phosphorus Ltd.) at the its Jhagadia plant, in the wake of incident dated 23.02.2021, resulting in a blast and major fire, claiming two lives and injuries to 26 persons. To verify facts, the Tribunal constituted a four-member joint Committee comprising of CPCB, State PCB, DISH and the District Magistrate, Bharuch. The Committee gave its report dated 17.04.2021 finding that there were violations in following safety protocols as well as monitoring and absence of adequate health facilities in the vicinity to protect human lives in case of such incidents. The Committee also suggested remedial measures. The operative part of order of this Tribunal is as follows:-
“11. We find that it is necessary to require an action taken report to be filed by the Chief Secretary, Gujarat who may hold a joint meeting with District Magistrate, Bharuch, the Director Industrial, Safety, the Member Secretary, State PCB and the GIDC within one month. The Chief Secretary may ensure that all the remedial measures have been adopted in terms of the report and file an action taken report within three months with the Tribunal by e-mail at [email protected] preferably in the form of searchable PDF/ OCR Support PDF and not in the form of Image PDF. The Chief Secretary, Gujarat may also issue instructions for requisite safety measures for all other industrial units in the State having potential for such accidents. The action taken report may include status of risk-policies taken by the industries to cover health and safety risks of persons engaged or likely to be affected and compliance of 1989 and 1996 Rules. The action taken report may also mention the remedial measures taken in respect of 11 other units mentioned in the report viz:-
Air Liquid India Holding Pvt Ltd.
Cheme Organic Chemicals
Galaxy Surfactants Ltd.
J M Hubar India Pvt Ltd.
Klg Organic Ltd.
Lanxess India Pvt Ltd.
Panoli Intermediate (India) Pvt. Ltd.
Saint Gobain Glass India Ltd.
Shriram Alkali & Chemicals (A unit of Dcm Shriram Consolidated) Ltd.
Upl Ltd. (Unit-5)
Vardhman Acrylics Ltd.
We also direct CPCB and MoEF&CC in coordination with other concerned authorities to consider issuing appropriate guidelines for conducting safety audits and taking other remedial measures throughout India in the light of present report as well as other recent reports in respect of industrial accidents so as to prevent such incidents and to save human lives and health.
We place on record our appreciation for the task executed by the Committee. CPCB may convey this observation to the members of the Committee. The report of the Committee may be placed on websites of the State PCB and the CPCB for purpose of reference for six months.
The application is disposed of except for considering the action taken report which may be filed in pursuance of the above order.”
The report filed by CPCB mentions the guidelines titled “Guidelines for Industries and Isolated Storages” for ‘On Site Emergency Plans’, ‘Role of concerned Authorities’, ‘Off Site Emergency Plans’ and ‘Safety Audit’. The report filed by State of Gujarat mentions that a joint meeting was held in pursuance of orders of this Tribunal on 30.06.2021 under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary and following decisions were taken:-
“1. Director-DISH will write a letter to the Ministry of Labour and Employment, New Delhi seeking required change in the Rules for inclusion of provisions that new and existing industries and isolated storage must be checked through accredited safety auditor and its report and recommendation to be implemented in specified time period.
District Collector shall send a report showing compliance status of the direction of Hon’ble NGT to the DISH.
GIDC shall upgrade inadequate fire-fighting facilities at GIDC, Jhagadia and to establish Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Centre (DPMC) with modern infrastructure, to take action in this regard along with facilitating a common reservoir with advance pumping system for fire-fighting and designated it for this special purpose.
GIDC shall enter upon MOU with the Seva Rural Trust Hospital for facilitating primary treatment and Jayaben Modi Hospital-Ankleshwar for treatment of severe case. GIDC shall make payment to the hospitals and will recover from the concerned industrial units.
As per the directions GPCB shall ask industry for payment of Environment Damage Compensation.
Nodal officer of compilation of an Action Taken report will be DISH and all the concerned departments shall submit compliance report of relevant directions narrated in order to DISH by 31/07/2021 and DISH shall prepare an ATR which will be submitted to Hon’ble Chief Secretary by 14.08.2021.”
Action taken report in pursuance of the above is mentioned as follows:-
Sr.
No.
Action required to be taken
Action Taken
1
Make a panel of safety auditors to inspect the factory independently twice
in a year and they should submit their report directly to DISH. The safety auditor should be made answerable to the Govt. To amend the rule as below:
Ø The occupiers of both theØ new and existing industrial activities and isolated storage must be checked by the Govt. through the safety auditor which is accredited by an accreditation board to be constituted by the Ministry of Labor, Government of India.
Ø The auditor within 30 days of audit shall send their report to the Chief Inspector with respect to the audit commendations and which shall be examined by the government within the period specified the recommendation that may be made by the Government in this behalf.
Ø Letter has been written to Hon’ble Secretary, Ministry of Labour and Employment,
GOI by Principal Secretary,
Labour and Employment, GoG on dated 18th September, 2021 vide letter No. FAC/145051/1956/M.3 (copy attached herewith in Annexure-A).
Ø Letter has been written to Director General Factory Advice Service and Labour Institute, Mumbai by Principal Secretary, Labour and Employment, GOG on dated 18th September, 2021 vide letter No. FAC/142021/1957/M.3 (copy attached herewith in Annexure-B).
Ø Letter has been written toØ Director General Factory Advice Service and Labour Institute, Mumbai by Principal Secretary, Labour and Employment, GOG on dated 22nd July, 2021 vide letter No. DISH/HSafety/2021/253 (Copy attached herewith in Annexure-C)
2.
Implementation of guidelines for Chemical disasters issued by National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) of the GOI.
Bharuch District Off Site Emergency Plan has been prepared as per the NDMA guideline, Off Site Emergency Plan updated date October, 2019.
3.
Improve emergency preparedness at all levels, substantial efforts are still required to predict the occurrence of disaster.
Information given in AnnexureD attached herewith.
4.
Effective implementation of Chemical Disaster Management (CMD) by adoption of preventive and mitigation strategies.
Information given in AnnexureD attached herewith.
5.
Importance to be given to statutory inspection, safety audit and testing of emergency plan, onsite emergency plan, information on chemical, technical information.
Information given in AnnexureD attached herewith.
6.
Appointment of adequate manpower as well as other staff considering the number of industries in the area so as to effectively monitor the manufacturing units
Recruitment process is under progress by Government of Gujarat.
7.
Proper training should be imparted to the officers of DISH.
Training is being given to the Officers as and when require.
While we take the above reports on record, further follow up action is taken. In particular, review meetings must be held at level of the Chief Secretary or his nominee atleast once in six months, if not earlier. Remedial measures in respect of 11 units mentioned in para 11 of order dated 11.06.2021, quoted above may be ascertained. CPCB may also take response from State PCBs as well as their regional offices about the status of compliance of guidelines at least once in every six months.
The proceedings are disposed of in above terms.
A copy of this order be also forwarded to CPCB and State PCB by e- mail for compliance.