Nagpur: The directorate of industrial safety and health — the agency which prevents mishaps in factories remains an under-staffed organization.
Lack of manpower has hampered inspection of units which can help in pointing out safety lapses, said sources.
Inspections are carried out by officials of assistant and deputy directors’ rank. The qualification is an engineering degree and five years of experience in safety maintenance in industries.
Sources said there are none holding the post of the assistant director throughout the state in the organization. More than fifty positions of deputy director are also vacant.
Assistant directors take up inspections of smaller factories. In the absence of assistant directors, deputy directors take up inspections, irrespective of the scale of the unit, said sources.
In Vidarbha, there are offices in Nagpur and Akola. Nagpur has three deputy directors as against a sanctioned strength of five. In Akola the same person is the deputy as well as joint director. This means the officer has to act as a one man army covering all the units in western Vidarbha, sources said.
Lack of manpower leaves the existing personnel thinly spread. Backlog of inspections has become normal.
Changes to ensure ease of doing business has also been done away with the discretion of the local officers. Since last four years, inspections are happening through a centralized system. The industries to be inspected are selected by the centralized unit (Mumbai) to be allotted to the offices down the line, said a source.
Regular inspections are pushed back in case of accidents which have to be investigated. Big mishaps like the one in Wardha take a longer time, said sources, who did not wish to be named.