Rescue operation: Death toll rises to 17

Boiler inspection was not stopped due to political pressure: DIG.

LAHORE:

The death toll from Monday’s building collapse following an apparent boiler explosion reached 17 as three more bodies were pulled out on Tuesday from the debris of the three-storey pharmaceutical laboratory.

According to Rescue 1122, rescuers have also pulled out 15 survivors so far.

Najam Saeed, a member of the inquiry team, and DIG Major Mubashirullah visited the site to start their investigation. The rescue operation had continued throughout Monday night under search lights.

The 17 bodies (three men and 14 women) recovered, included Tanveer, 12, Fauzia Raza, 25, Salma Bibi, 28, Nasreen Sardar, 22, Muhammad Asif, 14, Ambreen Sadiqi, 20, Maryam, 55, Shakeela Iqbal, 20, Alisha Rafique, 16, Saira, 14, Asiya Shafi, 15, Shakeela, 24, Bashiran Bibi, 40, Asma, 18, Musarrat, 22, and two unidentified bodies (a female, 25 and a male, 16).

Rescue workers included Falah-i-Insaniat Foundation, Civil Defence and Rescue 1122. Most of the rescue work was manual. Saliha Bibi, 60, was rescued on Tuesday after being trapped under the debris for more than 30 hours. The site resounded with applause as she was brought out relatively unharmed. She said there were other workers waiting to be taken out.

Rescue 1122 director general Dr Rizwan Naseer said that they thought there were nearly 10 more people under the debris. He said the number of people present at the time of the explosion claimed on Monday had not been verified. He said his new estimate was based on inquiries from families waiting for their relatives to be rescued.

Dr Naseer said that the operation was being conducted very carefully to save as many lives as possible. He added that the operation could take another 24 hours.

DIG Major Mubashirullah told The Express Tribune that no reports had been submitted by the Lahore Development Authority or the City District Government Lahore (CDGL) in the matter so far. He said an inquiry report would be submitted to the chief minister by Wednesday evening.

Major Mubashirullah said boiler inspections were not stopped due to political pressure as had been alleged but following the decision that all industries using boilers would obtain insurance. He said he believed that since no authority had checked the insurance the Industries Department should have continued their boiler inspection. The major said an inquiry team had been formed on October 3, 2011, consisting of a federal drug inspector and provincial and CDGL officials to check all of the city’s laboratories. He said these officials would also be questioned. He said the Labour Department would also be questioned because apparently children had been working at the factory.

‘Neutered’ city govt depts deny culpability

The provincial government has neutered the city government’s Labour and Industries departments and that is why neither was able to do anything about safety or child labour at the Orient Labs factory which collapsed on Monday, killing at least 17 people, said the district officers concerned.

Rescue work at the site of the collapse is ongoing so it is not clear what exactly caused the building to collapse. Witnesses reported loud blasts before the collapse and experts have suggested that it was caused by a boiler explosion.

District Officer (Industries) Muhammad Azhar Hussain said that the Punjab government had removed the department’s authority to inspect boilers installed in factories in 2006. In any case, he said, inspectors had checked the factory in 2006 on court orders and found no boiler installed there. He said that the factory was located in a residential area, but it had been established before it was declared a residential area, so it could not be removed. Many of the victims of the building collapse were children. District Officer (Labour) Muhammad Sabir Sheikh said that the Punjab government had in 2003 banned all factory inspections to check violations of labour laws, so it was unfair to expect the city government to stop child labour. The motive for the policy change was to curb high rates of bribery and extortion among labour inspectors, he said. He said that previously, the department had challaned the factory in 1992, when it was first registered with them, and in 2002, for building violations.

He said that the department had issued a certificate of stability for the ground floor of the building, but never for the first and second floors.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 8^th, 2012.