Speakers at a workshop, Safe workplaces -- putting people before profit, organised on Tuesday by a coalition of civil society organisations, dissected the frequent industrial accidents in Telangana and elsewhere, laying the blame squarely on the industry managements and the State.The workshop was organised jointly by Scientists for People, Montfort Social Institute (MSI), Human Rights Forum (HRF), Telangana People’s Joint Action Committee (TPJAC), and the Working People’s Coalition (WPC), in the context of the disastrous blast at Sigachi Industries. It demanded urgent and systemic reforms to industrial safety policies in the State.Retired scientist K. Babu Rao cited 25 instances of industrial accidents that the organisation analysed, to say that several accidents are taking place in special economic zones where modern worker safety mechanisms are expected to be in place. While the managements escape by blaming it on workers, authorities such as Pollution Control Board, and Director of Factories, which ought to enforce compliance look away.“After Sigachi blast, they have constituted teams to inspect the high risk factories. What were they doing for 35 years, not even identifying dust hazard in dust based industries?” Mr. Babu Rao said.Mr. Babu Rao said people without basic knowledge are being employed as workers, which is being condoned by the Labour Department. Even the inspectors from the Factories Department are mostly with engineering background and do not have basic knowledge about the chemical processes, he said.Legal activist Akhil Surya explained the chinks in the process through which those responsible for accidents escape, and warned that the amendments to the Labour laws proposed by the Central government will worsen the situation.There is no metric which quantifies the ex-gratia payable to the victims’ families and the injured in the accidents, he said. The compensation is driven by expediencies, he said, and showed the example of Sigachi Industries, which paid compensation first to the families of missing persons, because they were waiting outside and speaking with the media.The Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020, which is set to replace the Factories Act, 1948, does not have provisions related to the measures for the health and safety of workers, nor the clause that permits the State governments to add to the hazardous processes. The section pertaining to the constitution of Safety Committee, and the schedule of chemical tolerance limits too are omitted. Kin of the victims from Sigachi blast too spoke at the workshop, and complained that they have received only ₹25 lakh of the ₹1 crore compensation announced.Published - August 27, 2025 07:57 am IST