Ginning mills throwing fire safety to winds

Adilabad: It appears that fire safety and ginning mills don’t go together. Workers in the mills are exposed to danger as the mill managements are not adhering to safety standards like keeping ready one-lakh liters of water, leaving enough space for the fire tenders to move freely, in case of fire accident, provision of carbon-di-oxide at every 23 meters at the time of fire mishap and so on.

There are 125 mills in Adilabad, Nirmal, Mancherial, Nirmal and Asifabad districts. In fact, the mills should obtain a no-objection certificate from the fire department by paying Rs 15,000 annually. But, the managements are not keen on obtaining the certificate. During the past two not a single mill had obtained the certificate.

Further, not a single mill has capacity to store at least 10,000 liters of water let alone storing one-lakh liters. A simple precautionary measure – facility to sound an automatic alarm in case of fire mishap is lacking in.

The fire department personnel are turning a blind eye to omissions and commissions of the mill management with regard to the fire safety.

During 2015-16, 2 major fire accidents, 20 medium accidents and 7 minor accidents had taken place as against 4, 25 and 16 respectively during the previous year.

Speaking to The Hans India, Divisional Fire Safety Officer Chandanna said that the mill managements are not adhering to the fire safety rules. The fire department personnel are immediately swinging into action to arrest the spread of fire to other places.

To take suitable action against erring mill management for not following fire safety precautions, he said orders from higher authorities are necessary.

Local resident Santosh expressed doubts over the fire accidents in ginning mills and accused the mill managements of claiming fat insurance claims to the tune of Rs 1 crore when the magnitude of the fire mishap was only Rs 10 lakh.

He demanded investigation into all controversial insurance claims for fire accidents in ginning mills. He sought fire safety officials to take precautions to prevent fire accidents in the mills.

-ByThotla Chinna Anjaiah