Law Pours Cold Water on Fire Safety in Factories, Building Norms too Likely to Crumble
Sources in the government meanwhile expressed alarm on the push for investments and how the pursuit of Ease of Doing Business (EODB) in the state is leading to a situation where even more safety norms might fall by the wayside, if not officially, at least by having those in-charge turning a blind eye to allow investors the ‘ease’ of doing business their way.
Hyderabad: Fire accidents in pharma and chemical industries in Telangana are nothing new, but the laws pertaining to fire safety do not require all factories to obtain a no objection certificate from the Fire Services in the state.
According to fire services department, pharma units alone in Telangana had 102 fire accidents in the past 10 years.
Though potential fire hazards, a majority of factories take the free pass when it comes to adhering to strict fire safety norms. All this because of the way the law was written in the Telangana Fire Services Act of 1999. The Act mandates that only buildings and structures that stand 15 metres, approximately five stories tall, or more are required to obtain a fire no objection certificate. And this ‘loophole’ helps most industrial units, and factories escape the requirements related to fire safety norms, according to government officials.
Sources in the government meanwhile expressed alarm on the push for investments and how the pursuit of Ease of Doing Business (EODB) in the state is leading to a situation where even more safety norms might fall by the wayside, if not officially, at least by having those in-charge turning a blind eye to allow investors the ‘ease’ of doing business their way.
“The day the massive explosion occurred at the Sigachi Industries’ unit in Sangareddy district on June 30, a meeting on EODB related issues was held by the government. One of the suggestions made to encourage business investments in the state was that officials in-charge of permissions should not insist that factories or industrial structures follow the National Building Code norms. If this happens, it does not bode well for industrial and worker safety,” a top government source told Deccan Chronicle.
“Coupled with the free pass factories get on the fire safety front, if building norms are not adhered to, we may just be embarking on a disastrous journey on the factory safety front,” the source said.