Think industrial disasters and one inevitably is forced to reconcile with the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy, which left more than 10,000 people dead and injured over 500,000 people in its wake. After the disaster, a plethora of laws were enacted to affix accountability on corporates — be it Indian or foreign — for the damage caused to people and property. Alongside the numerous legislations, an entire ecosystem comprising multiple regulatory authorities came into being.

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Joining the shamefully long list of industrial disasters is the blast at unit number 6 of Unchahar Thermal Power Plant in Rae Bareli, run by India’s largest power utility National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC). As DNA has reported, the workers working in the unit had complained to the head of the boiler that there was a build up of choke in the boiler and the steam pipes.

Workers even went to the extent of filing a written complaint four days before the catastrophe took place, but the managerial team did not take any action. Had the higher-ups heeded the request of the workers, the disaster that snuffed out lives of 30 workers and injured more than 100 could have been prevented.

Reports also suggest that an unfortunate combination of human error, use of sub-standard material in the construction of the new unit and lackadaisical approach to safety and security measures contributed in equal measures towards this catastrophe. In time, the actual technical failure underlying this tragedy will come to the fore and whosoever is responsible — either by acts of commission or omission — must be subjected to the full force of the law.

Without sending a resounding message to publicly and privately owned industries, laxity in critical safety parameters will be abided by and avoidable deaths of industrial workers will continue. Companies must be made to feel the bite of paying a compensation that eats away a sizable chunk of their profits. Via the medium of deterrent compensation, Indian courts can and should ensure that industries allocate enough monetary and human resources to prevent such tragedies. Schools, colleges, residential areas and hospitals must be put through regular drills preparing them for the worst case scenario. These disaster management plans must also be updated regularly.

However, Indian industries suffer from a two-pronged negligence on this front: not only are the plans not updated, they are rarely if ever communicated to the local population. This means that in a critical situation the local people are clueless about the most basic precautions. Another glaring failure of the establishment has been in addressing the lacuna of the  Public Liability Insurance Act in 1991, which was enacted to provide ad-hoc relief to the injured parties waiting for their claims to be decided by courts.

The quantum of interim compensation that is paid to victims under this act is disgracefully low. Immediate amendment of this act will bring the compensation to a standard that will substantially help the families of the dead and the injured.