The Minister of
Steel, Shri Beni Prasad Verma has said that the accidents at different public
sector steel plants of the Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) and
Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL) have occurred due to reasons such as fall
from height, gas poisoning, electrocution, burn injury, fire/explosion etc.
There has been no loss of property on account of these accidents in steel
plants of SAIL. In RINL, in one major accident on 13.06.2012, damage of
property is about Rs.8.71 crores. A statement showing details of accidents
which occurred in these plants during the last three years and the current year
is annexed.
In a written
reply in the Rajya Sabha today Shri Verma said, Steel is a deregulated sector.
There are a large number of steel factories/plants in the country. Therefore,
in regard to the private steel sector, the requisite data/information is not
maintained by the Ministry of Steel.
He said, in case of contract labour, compensation/dependent
benefit is paid under the Employee State Insurance Scheme (ESIS) by the ESI
Corporation. In case of fatal accidents of regular employees, the compensation
is given as per the law/company policy. SAIL and RINL provide compensation to
their employees in case of death/disablement due to accident arising out of and
in course of employment as per The Employees’ Compensation Act, Employee Family
Benefit Scheme and company policy. SAIL and RINL have paid approximately
Rs.16,69,45,271/- as compensation to the injured persons and families of
deceased from 2011 till date.
The Minister said, the average annual
expenditure on maintenance of different plants (including expenditure incurred
on repairs, change in pipelines, electric repairs and mechanical maintenance)
of SAIL and RINL during the years 2010-11 to 2012-13 was about Rs. 5738.33
crore and Rs.777.80 crore respectively. Measures taken by SAIL Plants/Units to
avoid occurrence of accidents in identified areas of concern are as follows:-
(i)
Thrust on systematic approach for
safety management (OHSAS-18001 implementation, internal and external safety
audits etc.);
(ii)
Inclusion of safety in design in
new projects for implementation;
(iii)
Adoption of latest state of art
technologies to minimise human exposure to process hazards;
(iv)
Enforcing usage of job specific
Personal Protective Equipments (PPEs) by all concerned, mandatory use of full
body harness in place of safety belts;
(v)
Campaign and training on rail and
road safety;
(vi)
Use of retardant dress while
handling liquid metal;
(vii)
Provisions of automatic gas leak
detection and alarm system in hazardous areas;
(viii)
Conducting periodic mock drills as
per emergency plan;
(ix)
Strict adherence to Inter Plant Safety
Standards procedures;
(x)
Enforcement of safety induction
training; and
(xi)
Strict adherence to safety
procedures, medical fitness and height pass.
As regards RINL, enquiry
committees are set up to probe into the incident of each fatal accident, the
cause of each accident is identified and necessary measures are taken as per
details given below:-
(i)
Comprehensive safety audit has
been conducted by Regional Labor Institute, Chennai, DGFASLI (Directorate
General, Factory Advice Service & Labour Institutes) in July 2012.
(ii)
Review of Hazard Identification
and Risk Assessment Training programme has been conducted by Director Safety,
Regional Labor Institute, Chennai, DGFASLI in October 2012.
(iii)
Mock-drills as per the emergency
plan conducted periodically.
(iv)
Spreading safety awareness through
training programs and workshops.
(v)
Automatic gas leak detection alarm
in critical and gas prone areas provided.
(vi)
Enforcing usage of job specific
personal protective equipment.
(vii)
Conducting special training
programmes on Behavioral Based Safety and Legal awareness.
(viii)
Training programme conducted on
‘Prevention of Fire in Oxygen enriched systems’.
Click here to
see Annexure
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NSK/DB