MARGAO
A day after the fire incident left three workers dead, Chief Inspector of Factories and Boilers Anant S Pangam issued a host of directions to the occupier and manager of Vijay Marine Services, Loutolim prohibiting all activities and operations of the under construction 80M Landing Craft vessel on which accident occurred, until further orders.
Invoking powers conferred under Rule 18A of the Goa Factories Rules, 1985 prescribed under Section 9 (i) and Section 112 of the Factories Act, 1948, the Chief Inspector of Factories and Boilers in his order issued on Saturday, has further directed the management to prohibit all the confined space work in the entire factory premises until further orders.
The occupier and manager has been told to conduct Root Cause Analysis of the accident through recognised Occupational Safety & Health Auditor so as to ascertain the exact cause of the accident and submit action taken report on the findings.
Further directions have been issued to the occupier and manager to conduct/review the Hazard Identification and Risk Analysis for all the routine and non-routine activities / operations being performed in the factory premises through the Auditor and submit action taken report on the findings.
The management has been told to prepare and review the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for all the routine and non-routine activities / operations being performed in the factory premises through the said Auditor and submit action taken report on the findings.
Asserting the authorities mean business, the Chief Inspector’s order has ordered compliance to the directives and submission of the action taken report to his office within seven days of the receipt of this order.
Chief Inspector Pangam has warned that failure to comply with above directives shall compel his office to initiate action deemed fit against the manager and occupier of Vijay Marine Services.
Directions from the Chief Inspector of Factories and Boilers have come following site inspections carried out by Inspector of Factories, Pandurang D Malik on October 17-18.
The Chief Inspector has pointed out that by virtue of the severity of the accident, it is essential to ascertain the exact cause of accident in order to prevent recurrence of similar or such accidents in future. He further stated that it also essential that all the routine and non-routine activities / operations being performed in the factory premises are safe and without risk of any bodily injury and the methods of work adopted are safe.
