Boiler safety in name only!
There are an estimated 5,500 factory boilers nationwide and there are only six boiler inspectors. For those inspectors to examine and certify them as safe for operation, each inspector would have to inspect an estimated 900 factory boilers in a year. So that means every inspector has to inspect, on paper, 2.47 boilers daily (given that there are 365 days in a year) including the weekends. It is a mathematical impossibility which is not unknown to the authorities. The situation would be comical were it not for the fact that more than 30 people were killed at the Tampaco Foils factory, which is attributed by the Fire Service to the boiler explosion.
Now that we have had a disastrous accident, there is talk of a proposal lying with the concerned ministry for initiating a recruitment process of 350 inspectors in post-Eid period. But given the pace of implementation, one wonders if the requisite manpower will be inducted into service so that such disastrous accidents in future can be prevented. Our scepticism arises primarily out of the fact that the proposal for new manpower recruitment was apparently sent in February and it has been six months already.
Given that boilers are an essential part of many factory operations, a piece of equipment that is used to generate steam for sterilisation, drying, power generation, etc. we sincerely hope that the ministry goes into high gear to recruit, train and induct the inspectors as soon as possible.
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