Dibrugarh deputy commissioner Pallav Gopal Jha on Thursday directed the authorities of all PSUs in the district to identify major accident hazard (MAH) units within their operational areas.
Deputy commissioner Jha has asked the authorities of the PSUs to submit the reports to the District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) within seven days.
The direction came in a meeting held at the DC’s conference hall in Dibrugarh, chaired by deputy commissioner Jha, who is also the chairman of the DDMA, Dibrugarh.
The meeting was held to review the disaster management plans of the PSUs in case of occurrence of any major industrial disaster /hazard.
The meeting reviewed the preparation and updating of disaster management plans and readiness of the PSUs to tackle any kind of industrial hazard.
During the meeting, the PSUs were directed to submit the contact number of one responsible official against the MAHs, who can be contacted in case of any disaster along with the list of MAH units.
In the meeting, DC Jha directed the PSUs to carry out offsite mock drills extensively so that the general people can learn about the possible hazards and prepare accordingly.
He specially directed Oil India Limited to conduct mock drills in all offsite drilling locations within three months involving the local community and submit a report to DDMA.
In the meeting, ADC Dipu Kumar Deka pointed out the cases of deaths due to drowning that occurred in the temporary drilling locations of OIL and directed OIL authority to properly fence those locations and put up proper signage to prevent such incidents.
PSUs like BVFCL were also directed to identify MAHs in case of an earthquake of high magnitude and assess the impact of earthquake in areas where chemicals/ hazardous item are stored.
They were also asked to regularly monitor their readiness to prevent any kind of hazard that may occur as a result of an earthquake.
DC Jha also directed general manager of District Industries and Commerce Centre, Dibrugarh present in the meeting to issue similar kind of directions to the industrial units of the district so that similar precautions can be taken by these industrial units.
The meeting also discussed the fire incidents that occurred due to illegal storage of fire crackers.
The representatives of Fire Works Dealers’ Association, who were present in the meeting, were asked to take precautionary measures to prevent all kinds of disasters such as fire in fire cracker godowns.
The Association representatives were directed to submit a list of locations of such godowns in Dibrugarh town to the DDMA within 15 days.
The DC directed the DDMA to issue a notice directing fire work dealers to relocate fire cracker godowns away from densely populated areas of the town within seven days.
The deputy commissioner asked the DDMA to ensure strict compliance of the directive, failing which strict action would be initiated against the dealers.
The meeting was conducted by the DDMA in view of increase in the number of incidents of industrial hazards in the recent past.
The meeting was also attended deputy superintendent of police, Dibrugarh, Samir Daptar Baruah; DPO, DDMA, Dipjyoti Hatikakoty and representatives from various PSUs such as OIL, BCPL, BVFCL, NTPS, APCL, NEEPCO, AGCL and IOCL.