MARGAO
Strange it may seem, but true that when the Ammonia gas tragedy had hit the Cuncolim Industrial Estate in the wee hours of Friday, the district authorities were not intimated about the incident, either by the police, fire services or other agencies involved in the disaster management.
Taking strong cognizance of the failure of the authorities including the police to communicate the incident to district authorities, district Collector, Ajit Roy and Deputy Collector, Margao Jyoti Kumari, both IAS officials, held separate meetings with both police and senior officials to find out the reasons behind the delay in informing the Ammonia gas leakage to their offices.
While the district Collector is believed to have had a meeting with deputy Collectors from South Goa, the deputy Collector, Margao Ms Kumari held a meeting with the police station in-charges of all the police stations in Salcete, including Cuncolim, Colva, Margao, Fatorda, Maina-Curtorim and Verna to ensure the police officers keep the district Collector and the deputy Collectors in the loop in times of disaster.
Sources in the know informed that the district Collector and the deputy Collector took serious cognizance of the inordinate delay on the part of the ground level authorities in communicating the Ammonia gas leakage to the district authorities.
What made the district Collector and the deputy Collector, Margao to call for a meeting of the officials was the fact that the disaster management mechanism entails responses on the agencies, with each agency entrusted with the task of handling the disaster.
The Goan understands that the deputy Collector, Margao, Jyoti Kumar has made it very clear to the police station in-charges that there cannot be any delay on the part of the police to keep the authorities informed about such incidents.
It is learnt that the deputy Collector, Margao has insisted that such incidents need to be brought before the notice of the district authorities immediately without fail.
Sources in the know informed that while the fire services had received a call at around 2.59 am on Friday morning about the incident, the gas leakage was plugged before the arrival of the fire brigade.
Incidentally, senior fire officials were in the dark over the death of a person from an adjoining industrial unit till noon as the fire brigade is believed to have returned back to the station soon thereafter.
Questions are being raised in official circles why the police or the fire services failed to keep the district authorities in the loop immediately, more so when the Ammonia gas leakage had claimed the life of a worker and left 4-5 workers injured.
