To deal with the situation of chemical disaster, the District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) along with other departments including Delhi Fire Services (DFS), Civil Defence, State labour and industrial department has formed ‘District Crisis Group’ (DCG) for each district in the national Capital territory.
The move came after the National Green Tribunal (NGT) took suo-motu cognisance and asked all States to be prepared for any eventuality caused due to chemical disasters.
Earlier, on July 13, 2020, a major fire broke out at a pharmaceutical unit near Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and engulfed a major part of the facility. The incident claimed life of a man while other sustained burn injuries due to fire. In another incident on May 7 involving leakage of chlorine in a unit in pharma city of Vigaz, 11 persons lost their lives and more than 1000 people got sick after being exposed to gas.
According to the official, Delhi is gearing up to have its own offsite emergency plans for each district. “The meetings of DCG along with District Magistrate (DM) are being held and the efforts are being made to minimise the impact of any disaster, through better planning, preparedness and response,” said the official.
S P Rana, Deputy Director of the Directorate of Industrial Safety and Health of Labour Department, who is also member of DCG, said that their department is working with respective district magistrates to prepare themselves for dealing with any emergency situation.
“Delhi has district disaster management plans well in place and responsibilities of various authorities have been assigned, in case of a disaster due to any situation including natural calamities. However, these offsite plans have been developed to deal with industrial disasters due to fire, explosion, or toxic release involving major accident hazards installations,” said the Deputy Director.
Meanwhile, P K Goswami, Deputy Director, ISH informed that DCG have been formed to assist district administration and to monitor any chemical accident in the state.
“The chemical leak in Tughlakabad depot of CONCOR on morning of May 6, 2017 that triggered toxic fumes that left 475 school children sick with breathlessness, eye irritation, nausea and severe headache, is a reminder of the need for such DCG groups for Accident emergency planning, preparedness and response,” said Goswami.