The Opposition Congress on Tuesday staged a walkout in the Assembly, expressing dissatisfaction over the refusal by Forest and Environment Minister Bijayshree Routray to allow a probe by CBI or a House panel into the series of accidents in the Bhushan Steels limited (BSl) plant in Dhenkanal district, particularly into the November 13 furnace blast that left three dead and 28 injured.
However, replying to a marathon debate on the admissibility of an adjournment motion moved by the Opposition over the illegal construction and production in the Bhushan plant, Routray, who is also State labour Minister, said the State Government had taken strong action against the company after the explosion. But he admitted that there were some irregularities in the operation of the BSl unit and transparency in the company was comparatively less than other companies.
Rubbishing the demand by the Congress for a CBI or House panel probe into the Bhushan accidents since the unit’s commissioning, Routray asserted that since the Government had already initiated proper action as per law against the erring company, there was no need for such an inquiry. There is no question of laxity against Bhushan, he said, adding law would take its own course.
The Government has already arrested three top company officials in connection with the November 13 explosion, Routray said, adding the Government had lodged cases under different Sections of under labour and environment laws and also sealed the captive power plant, cold rolling mill and blast furnace of the plant.
The Minister said that the company would only be allowed to reopen and commission its already closed units after all safety aspects of the factory were approved of by a renowned safety agency and normalcy returned to the area.
He also informed the House that the Government had requested the Central Directorate General of Factory Advice Service and labour to open a branch in Odisha to examine the safety measures in all major and medium industries, including the BSl unit to ensure that such mishaps do not recur and companies are not allowed to violate the labour or environment laws.
He also said that in order to look into whether the BSl had followed all the labour and environment guidelines in operating the plant, the State Government had already engaged IIT Kharagpur since November 25 for undertaking safety audit of the unit.
However, participating in the debate, opposition Congress members, including Prasad Harichandan and leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh, alleged that the BSl was running its empire by violating all the laws at the behest of the State Government.
Alleging that the company had flouted all laws including forest, environment, labour and revenue, they said that the steel plant had become a death trap and blamed the Government, particularly the Chief Minister, for the incident.
They demanded that promoter of the company Niraj Singhal should be booked and cases be instituted against him for murder as was done in case of Union Carbide’s Bhopal gas tragedy.
Alleging that the BSl had been resorting to blatant violation of the State laws , the Congress Chief Whip Harichandan said that since commissioning of the plant in 2006, so far 91 people were killed inside the plant and 72 cases were filed against the company prior to November 13 explosion. But the Government had gone soft and did not take any action against the erring company, he regretted.
He also lamented that the BSl authorities in 2008 had not allowed a House Committee to enter into the plant to probe its lapses. Giving number of violation of the State laws, he also said that the BSl had illegally acquired 61.48 acres of revenue land of the Rengali right canal. The company also set up a cold rolling mill power plant and the second blast furnace without permission that led to the explosion. He wanted to know why the owner of the BSl Niraj Singhal and Brij Bhushan had not yet been arrested.
He also sought to know from the Odisha Pollution Control Board how the closure notice was lifted and the company was allowed to run the plant early this year. Even after the recent blast and the closure of the blast furnace -2, cold rolling mill and the 256 MW power plant, how was company allowed to run other units of the plant, he asked. Treasury Bench members Samir Ranjan Das, Nrusingh Sahu, Ananta Das and Prafulla Samal admitted the irregularities committed in the BSl but defended the Government’s action so far.