Goa sees drastic drop in industrial accidents

Goa sees drastic drop in industrial accidents
HERALD REPORTER
PANJIM, NOV 6
The rate of accidents in hazardous industries in Goa has dropped drastically in last one year, official said.
As per the statistics, in last three years there has been 20 accidents in the factories leading to death of 30 workers, which includes just three accidents in 2009-10.
Talking to Herald, Inspectorate of Factories and Boiler (IFB) chief S M Paranjape said that in last one year the incident rates in the factories has gone down from 2.6 per thousand workers to 1.2 in 2009-10, which is much lower then the national rate of 11.
 “The incident rate in 2000 was 5 per thousand workers, which remained more or less constant till 2005,” Paranjape said.
Goa has around 710 registered factories with 200 hazardous units of which 16 are identified as major hazardous unit under Factories Act 1948.
The chief said that the sudden decline in the number of accidents was only after the massive explosion that took place in Global Ispat Ltd at Cuncolim in 2009 killing four workers and injuring 51.
 “Since then, strict measures are been taken to improve the safety of workers in the factories. The workers as well as the high officials are been trained in various safety measures,” he stated.
The department since 2007 has trained 3600 workers, including the contract staff. While more than 5,000 industrial managers and supervisors are trained over a decade in the safety practices by Green Triangle Society (GTS), a joint venture of industries and state government.
The training programmes of IFB includes basic safety programmes, electrical safety, environmental and safety legislations in India, hazardous waste management, fire safety, boiler safety, accident causes-prevention-control, industrial hygiene and many other.
The IFB has also issued a warning note to all the factories and industrial units in the state, especially, the steel manufacturing units that it will take a stern action against them if they were found to be neglecting the safety measures at the work place.    
 “Not just IFB but industries also need to pay attention to the safety of its workers. To keep a look at the safety measures, inspections are been carried out on monthly bases across the state,” he stated.
Paranjape said that most of the workers get injured when they come in contact with explosives, electrical things or due to fall of object or person.
As per the statistics, the numbers of injuries are more among males (95 percent) then females (five percent). Similarly, injuries are high in the age group from 18-30 (60 percent) followed by 35-40 (20 percent).
The data reveals that nearly 85 percent of workers engaged in these 700-odd industries are non Goans. The reasons however were not specified.