TN unprepared for hazardous units

Almost 100 districts, which has the Major Accident Hazard (MAH) units are yet to come up with their off-site disaster management plans, said Shashidhar Reddy, vice chairman, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).

Delivering the inaugural address at a conference on Chemical (Industrial) Disaster Management (CIDM), here, Reddy said: "I think we are not making any progress in this direction."

At present, the country has about 1,861 Major Accident Hazard (MAH) units across 301 districts, of which 22 are in Tamil Nadu. In all, the off-site emergency plans for 200 districts have been prepared so far.

"The very fact that there are over 100 districts still to come up with their off-site disaster management plans covering these major accident hazard units, I think this is a matter to be taken very seriously by all states concerned," he said.

Of the 22 districts in Tamil Nadu, only 14-17 districts have so far prepared the off-site plans. He urged the state government to look into the issue and direct officials to do all that's necessary in this direction.

Another area where improvement has to be made is in strengthening the institution of the inspectorate of factories. "The responsibility for implementation of the off-site disaster management plan, or looking at the safety aspects is with inspector of factories. Unfortunately, we found a lot of deficiencies," he added.

For instance, in Andhra Pradesh, there are field officers in 56 and the number of registered factories is 45,056. These include about 157 MAH units and 1.2 million workers who are actively involved. This is a very glaring deficiency and most states are in similar positions, he said.

The NDMA set up a core group of national experts in 2012 on the prevention and monitoring of chemical industrial disasters and also to revamp the inspectorate of factories.

"We also find that enough is not provided to these people to function," said Reddy about the facilities in the inspectorates. He urged the state government to take steps to strengthen the inspectorates.

Similarly, in Tamil Nadu, one of the major concerns is the recurring incidents in Sivakasi, which feeds the requirement of 70 per cent of the crackers and fireworks market in the country.

The NDMA has held mock drills and has sent the report which pointed out deficiencies such as many of the firms working without proper registration and many factories not having a separate exit, which increases the risk of people working in it.

The state government is taking steps on the issue and the NDMA would offer their suggestions on this, he added.