Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Information commission raps DISH over incomplete RTI reply

Express News Service: Nov 29, 2010,
Vadodara The Gujarat Information Commission has ordered the Department of Industrial Safety and Health (DISH) to furnish complete information to an Right To Information (RTI) query filed two-and-a-half years ago, in the wake of last week’s blast at a chemical factory in Nandesari.
The applicant had demanded the status of hazardous chemical manufacturing units in Vadodara, Panchmahals, Anand and Kheda districts of central Gujarat through the application.
Coming down sharply for not providing the information to the Vadodara-based labour activist, Jagadish Patel, the GIC in an order dated November 11, 2010, asked DISH to furnish the status of the hazardous units.
Patel had, in the application filed on June 4, 2008, sought information about health facilities extended to the workers, details of the 25 listed hazardous process under the Gujarat Factories Act, and working hours, among others. But DISH just provided him with a list of the industries, which manufacture hazardous products, while skipping rest of the 16 questions.
Dissatisfied with the attitude of the department, Patel made an appeal to the appelate authority of GIC on July 11, 2008. But the Information Commission said the replies filed by DISH were sufficient. Patel then made fresh application to GIC on October 10, 2008. Later, a hearing was conducted at GIC for Patel’s specific queries (1367/2008/2009), in which officials from DISH were summoned. It was only on June 4, 2010, that DISH officials provided him with the district-wise break up of hazardous industries, while questions about the health facilities and check ups of the workers as per Chapter 4 (A) of Schedule 1 of Gujarat Industrial Safety Act, were not furnished.
A senior DISH official said on condition of anonymity that even though health-check ups are done in some industries, no records about the workers are maintained, especially in the silica manufacturing units. The RTI reply from DISH meanwhile states, 751 hazardous units in Vadodara district, 187 hazardous units in Panchmahals, 28 units in Anand and 20 units in Kheda district.
Meanwhile, fire officials from Nandesari and Vadodara Municipal Corporation said two more fires reported were from the K-Dac company on Saturday.