With a view to combat and contain the possibility of any industrial disaster arising out of chemical mishandling and their subsequent consequences, the Orissa government today decided to introduce a State Crisis Alert System (SCAS) in the state.
The state crisis group, constituted to establish necessary links between the Central and state agencies in the matters pertaining to combating industrial disasters, will prepare the draft for the SCAS and this will be circulated to all the district crisis groups and the factories located in the concerned district.
Besides, an emergency response centre (ERC) will come up in Bhubaneswar and will function from the campus of a multi-disciplinary centre on safety, health and environment. This centre will facilitate an information networking system and will develop a data base of various chemicals that are being used in the major accident hazard (MAH) units.
This was decided in the second meeting of the State Crisis Group (SCG) headed by the chief secretary, Ajit Kumar Tripathy in the state secretariat on Friday.
Despite the best safety precautions in handling, storage and manufacture of hazardous chemicals, an emergency may occur due to fire, explosion or release of toxic gas. Apart from the factory premises, such accidents can happen even on roads while chemicals are being transported.
The state government has identified 31 major accident hazard (MAH) units in locations like Angul, Balasore, Cuttack, Ganjam, Jagatsinghpur, Jharsuguda, Keonjhar, Khurda, Koraput, Nawarangpur, Raygada and Sundergarh.
It was decided to take special care of these units. Safety personnel engaged in these industries will be provided training to update their knowledge to deal with such hazards. While they will be trained by the personnel of Orissa Fire Service (OFS), the units have been advised to maintain adequate amount of accident fighting equipments.
Orissa Disaster Rapid Action Force (ODRAF) jawans will also be trained to handle situations arising out of chemical accident, gas leakage and fire. Mock drills will be conducted by all MAH units at regular interval.
Sources said, the officers of the district fire service will inspect these identified units at regular interval. In case of apprehension, the management of these units can get in touch with the director, factories. Each of these units will be inspected jointly by the assistant director (factories) at the district level and the district fire officer.
Besides, the district crisis groups (DCGs) have been planned for all 30 districts of the state. While DCGs have been constituted in 22 districts, steps will be taken to constitute DCGs in the remaining 8 districts. These districts are Bhadrakh, Bolangir, Boudh, Deogarh, Gajapati, Kandhamal, Kendarapra and Malkangiri.
