Factories Dept Callous, Incompetent, Fudged Facts to Help Sigachi

Hyderabad: The final report by a panel of experts who investigated the June 30 blast at the Sigachi Industries plant in Pashamylaram, which killed 54 people, has not just held the company wholly accountable for the disaster but also reads like a damning indictment of the factories department which is vested with the responsibility of ensuring worker safety.

Devoting a substantial part of its findings on factors that led to the worst industrial disaster in Telangana, the committee made it clear that inspectors of the factories department were over the years “callous” in their attitude, that their inspections were “non-serious” and “did not reflect the factual violations of the industry.”

After going through the inspection reports of Sigachi Industries filed by the factories department from 2019 to 2024, the committee, in its 278-page ‘Investigation Report on The Explosion at M/s Sigachi Industries Limited, Pashamylaram, on 30th June, 2025’, pointed to several disparities, including on how in one year some aspect of safety was noted as ‘not existing’, the next year as ‘existing’, and later as ‘not existing’.

Even worse, mentioning the 2024 inspection on December 12, the last such exercise before the June 2025 explosion, the committee report hinted at the factories department officials fudging the actual state of affairs inside the Sigachi factory.

For instance, the committee said Sigachi on the day of the accident did not have safety systems, emergency shut-off system, dump tanks, sensors with alarm systems, standard operating procedures for hazardous operations, onsite emergency plan as per MSIHC (Manufacture, storage, and import of hazardous chemicals) Rules, 1989, and risk and hazard and operability (Hazop) report carried out by a third party.

The factories department, in its report, marked ‘yes’ to all of these, making it appear that the company was complying with its obligations on safety.

Another among several examples that exposed either the incompetence of the department personnel or their deliberately giving a clean chit to the company, was how the 2024 inspecting officer declared ‘not applicable’ on the issue “whether drier/ovens examined by responsible person designated by occupier or manager.”

Asking “why was this negligence from the inspecting officer,” the expert committee questioned the basis on which this certification was made, given the fact that Sigachi had different types of dryers and ovens.

These are just two examples from the report, which has several others that expose what could only be described as a ‘we don’t care’ attitude by the factories department when it comes to worker safety. The committee of experts, said inspection reports over the years “very clearly exposed the callous attitude” of the factories department and amounted to “incompetency” of its inspectors and questioned their engineering and analytical capabilities.