Alumni comments on lack of concern for safety at IITK
I am surprised that Ramky Infrastructure is the contractor for this work at IITK.
I have had some interface with Ramky Infrastructure during the last around two years. I found that this
company is highly dishonest and corrupt to the core. I had to send several notices and threatened to get
their top management arrested then they honored, which too some extent only and not fully, the
commitment they made to us
Thanks and best regards
Varun Arya
Read your mail. It is very serious matter.
As preventive measures, IITK should implement Health and Safety Management System to OHSAS 18001
to improve working conditions at construction site.
As a Lead Auditor for various management systems, I can assist IIT K to implement it.
Let us move it to work together for this noble cause.
Rgds
Further to my below mail, attached please find presentation on OH&S Management System.
IITK shall work only with contractors certified for OHSAS 18001.
Rgds
BB Sinha
1965 Batch.
Many thanks for your thought provoking letter. I was shocked to learn about the
safety matters in the contracts of IITK.
Well, I was associated for major part of my working life with variety of construction jobs in a steel plant
that had a well documented Conditions of Contract for compliance of the contractors. This document
contained detailed clause on Safety that I am attaching as a folder. You kindly go thru the same and
take necessary actions. In fact, I had done lot of work on construction safety so much so that I got an
award from The Steel Ministry on my book "Safety in Construction"(in Hindi). Hope, the enclosed
material will answer lot of your queries be of some help to you. In case you need any further details, pl
free to contact me (Ph).
Thanking you once again and with due regards,
P C Jain
Ghaziabad, India, 1966 Batch
A follow up by PC Jain after Sushil Handa response
Many thanks for your prompt response. The credit surely goes to the technology
where we could connect ourselves fast and almost free of cost.
I fully agree that the problem lies not with the contractor with the top
management of the principal employer due to complacency. There are umpteen codes,
rules and regulations to ensure safe working conditions for the workers at the
construction sites but then, who cares till an accident takes place. The extract
that I had sent to you is from the General Conditions of Contract that we in IISCO
used to issue to the prospective contractors along with the tenders to let them
know their responsibilities before submitting their quotations. We definitely used
to take lot of precautions , specially in regard to personal safety appliances for
the workers, safety of scaffolding, house keeping etc. at construction sites.
Safety training used to be imparted at site as well as at the training center by
trainers from safety dept. Despite all this, accidents do used to happen but at
lesser volumes. I AM AT A LOSS to understand the situation at IITK in this regard.
The willingness to ensure safety measures at construction sites seems to be
lacking at the top level.
The task you have taken will surely go a long way to ensure well being of the
construction workers. Pl let me know if I could be any help in future.
I wonder how does Canada ensure safety practices on construction contracts? I really don't know.
In USA, the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) at random inspects construction
practices and holds the workers' employer, the contractor in most cases, responsible for unsafe
practices. Additionally injured parties can also sue for damages and they also have Worker's
Compensation (that all employers have to buy insurance for) funds to be paid from. Hazard risk and
accident history determines the premiums. The project owner's responsibility is quite limited as long
the contractor is required to provide liability and workman's compensation insurance.
I wonder if India (or U.P.) has any of this. We all know that the court cases keep running for decades without a decision. Justice delayed is surely justice denied. Litigation is also expensive - outside the
reach of a poor laborer. The threat of lawsuit or two might fix the whole situation. The entire system
there is shot as far as litigation is concerned. The fear of being sued keeps the construction industry
here in the west in-line. Lawyers work on contingency and the cases don't run that long.
Chandra Shekhar Trivedi , 1966 Batch
Great initiative. I will support you and your group. Just let me know what to do.
I am shocked at the working conditions specially is there no Worker's Compensation Insurance?
With regards
Sunny Pratap Chandra Gupta
B.Tech.(IIT/Kanpur 1966), M.Sc.(Hons)Canada,
Fellow, Australian Institute of Company Directors|FAICD
Managing Director| CHANDRA ENTERPRISES PTY LTD
Dear Sushil,
My suggestion (a businessman’s suggestion) is to provide incentives instead of legalese.
Perhaps as follows:
Contracts should award some BONUS to the contractor who shows no deaths/less injuries
(or some other metric that is VERY easy to measure).
Perhaps IIT/K can be persuaded to do this. I bet they can be shamed in to doing this by the
students & alumni starting a fund that awards these Bonuses (preferably, yearly) to the contractor
who has the least deaths/injuries. (At my company, I gave two annual awards: One for the best
and a second one for the one showing the most improvement. It solved most problems without
requiring a single lawyer/manager/policeman)
I have always remembered Tagore’s milk story about the guy who hired an inspector to
make sure the milkman didn’t water the milk. Yet the milk stayed watery. So he hired two
inspectors. Lo and behold, the milk became more watery! He hired three and, you guessed it, the
milk was watery still. When he hired the next inspector the milkman came to him in frustration
and told him that if he kept hiring more inspectors, pretty soon the milk would be good only to
breed fish!
(If you didn’t get this, ask any milkman who is making a living)
Cordially, Anant
Anant K. Nigam, Ph.D.
President, H.R.L., Inc.
Margate, FL 33063
Dear Sushil,
I agree with what Anant has written. Now a days it is becoming a standard practice to include a
clause for penalty for any accident at site .The amount depends upon the nature of accident. An
reward is also given for accident free year or Millions of work hour . As per the law. the
principal employer that is Promoter or Owner of the project is responsible for what happens at
his project site. Legally IIT Kanpur is responsible for any accident at its site and can be asked to
pay compensation to injured.
With best wishes and regards
Akhil C Rae
This is indeed strange. All (and specially government) contract documents have safety clauses that are a
part of the standard document. Further, the monitoring agency or person has to look at the safety
aspects. This too is usually a part of the standard terms of reference of such a person/agency’s
agreement.
Rahul Thakkar
If things do not improve, and someone in the bureaucracy decides, IIT Director and Faculty may be held
responsible as Principal Employer, and someone may be arrested. Can someone put together a ppt on
this and send it to authorities ?
Having safety clauses in contracts does not absolve the principal employer from his responsibility.. and it
would be very sad if a teacher has to face trouble for something happening which he comes to know
about after the event.!! A system of safety permits, and a safety officer's presence at site is essential.
This does not deter other "terms" of the contract proceeding "merrily" as they are, but neglecting safety
is dangerous to all concerned.
Regards,
Mukesh Anjaria
Going through these emails has been very upsetting. I too receive calls for annual donations from IITK. I have decided not to donate anymore until things
change. I feel bad, but I am with you on this.
At one extreme we have a life threatening safety issue, which must be dealt with properly.
At another extreme, the root cause of all this is corruption, which unfortunately is a national curse. It is
hard and cancerous. If its hold is weakened ever so slightly at IITK, then resolution of many other
symptomatic issues may be feasible.
The story of Aravali Institute of Management and Varun Arya is very inspiring. He fought corruption.
How can IIT Alumni move the needle in this regard? What would be an impactful strategy? What can we
do?
Regards,
Pinakin P
Varun's experience is an eye opener.
1. I am curious.....Is there a credible performance metric included as a clause in the contract award to
quantify a contractor's AND its management's performance on a public sector financed project e.g.
database at the Central Dept of Commerce or Vigilance Commission or some such entity where
performance vs. cost vs. schedule data are maintained and, more important, can not be altered or
deleted? Is there a procedure by which a contractor, and/or its executive management, can be debarred
from doing business with a public sector entity?
2. You have reported 10 fatalities and 12 accidents; I presume the figures may not include those with
broken legs and elbows. In hindsight, wouldn't designating funds to provide some means of
supplemental assistance to the disabled or the families/children of deceased not have been a better
"project" than a "Yoga" room which, if persuaded, the IITK Administration would have built with its
funds?
3. From our '72 batch, I propose that, as a priority for the next two or three years, we designate our
batch leader(s) to take up this matter directly with the Director and even the ministry, much as the
subject may not be so pleasant to bring to the IIT Management. With their direct, frequent, and cordial
personal contact with the IIT Management over the last many years and perhaps with the ministry, they
are already in the best position to do so.....None of the rest of us batch mates would be anywhere as
effective in accomplishing the objective. Who cares if the Director chooses not to invite '72 batch alumni
to a reunion reception at his house?
Yogesh Mahrotra
Any idea of the budgets for these projects?
I can send typical contract clauses commensurate with the cost of each contract.
Unless there is a penalty for each and every violation of safety norm laid down in the contract, this will
continue.
And, of course there has to be a safety officer. which they failed to produce even after our specific
requests during the last meeting Bhatta has mentioned.
Does IITK have certification for safety known as OHSAS, the bare minimum requirement?
OHSAS 18001 and 18000 Occupational Health and Safety
It is nearly impossible to get an international contract without this certification. IITK must have it if it is
in that league.
Aryn Srivastava
I am deeply ashamed and angry at the continued state of affairs in IITK on the matter of workers' safety.
In the last Reunion of the 1972 graduating batch (mine) in IITK in 2010 we had made a detailed
presentation to attendees including a few representatives of the faculty. We had highlighted the tragic
record of IITK and the fact that it has among the highest accident rates among IITs. At the end of the
presentation one faculty member flatly refused to take cognisance of the evidence we had presented.
He effectively summed up the Administration's response: alumni live in ivory towers; they don't know
the ground realities in Kanpur; stay out of our hair.
Ashok and a few dedicated alumni, and a Kanpur based NGO have done remarkable work to bring these
events to public notice, and to the attention of the alumni. They have also attempted to engage with the
Administration to HELP bring about safety consciousness and practices. One of my batchmates who has
considerable experience of Safety Health and Environment practices in a leading MNC, had offered to
work with the Administration free of cost to help them institute best practices. His offer has been
ignored.
IITK continues to solicit contribution from alumni. I receive one or two calls every year from students
who work for DRPG. When the last call arrived three weeks ago I politely and firmly told the student that
I cannot contribute to an institution that continues to act heartlessly and immorally. I asked him to
convey my sentiments to DRPG.
I hope he did, but I do not have any hope it will change anything. I am so angry that I feel the Alumni
Association should file a PIL to haul the Institute over the coals. I am aware many alumni do not endorse
such action for a variety of reasons. I do not believe we should look askance. We are not obligated to the people who are running it. It is our Institute. Our loyalty is to the institution
that has made us what we are. I feel we should act to remedy the grievous wrong.
V.N. Bhattacharya
Business & Corporate Strategy
I fully share your sentiments and endorse your views, I could not have summed them better. Though I
am usually quite neutral in other people’s affairs, but on this matter I am livid too.
Regards
Mote’ Ravi Tandon
Respected Director of IIT Kanpur,
It is with great anguish that I am declining to make donation to Annual Gift Program. As in the past I had
all the intentions of continuing to donate, but in light of inaction and lack of progress by IITK in resolving
construction related safety issues to prevent deaths and injuries, I have decided to stop.
My colleagues and I would highly appreciate your leadership in implementing reforms to prevent and
ultimately eliminate construction related deaths and injuries.
Please let us Alumni know how we can help.
Best Regards,
Pinakin Jaradi
Batch of 1972.
Dear Prof. Manna,
As an alumnus of the graduating batch of 1972, and a person who has taken pride in the alma mater, I
am disappointed and dismayed at the continued poor safety record at IITK construction sites.
I am aware that a number of deaths have occurred owing to poor safety practices of contractors
employed by the Institute. This has been going on for several years and IITK appears to have done little
to hold contractors accountable and implement safety practices that will save lives and avoid serious
injuries. What bothers me more is that IITK has remained a mute spectator, for the most part, when
contractors have attempted and deprived the poor families of deceased labourers by not paying them
full legal compensation.
IITK has greatly diminished in my esteem owing to the administration's lack of resolute and proactive
action to uphold safety standards and the value of poor people's lives. For two years now I have
withheld contributing to IITK funds in protest. I realise that silent action is not enough. That is why I am
writing to you to convey my anguish, and hope that you will set things right soon.
You have a great opportunity to do the right thing and make us all proud of the world class institution
IITK strives to be. I hope your positive action will encourage me to once again begin contributing to the
welfare of IITK as I dearly want to.
With kind regards,
V.N. Bhattacharya
Dear Sir,
No accidents are acceptable, especially considering that the construction work is related to buildings,
mostly in easy environment, and maybe very few high risk tasks like welding and mechanical works are
involved.
There can be complex agreements, or even simple statements of intent and directions for safe practices
are sufficient, if you want to do things right.
Industry practice is for high penalties, and then of course bargaining for waiver or partial waiver, but yes
the practice acts as a deterrent, at least for stopping simple violations like not wearing safety gear, or
harnesses for working at heights. Any one can devise a system for this, provided you want to implement
it.
Training of workers has to be done for each batch at the start, by a lecture, training video or whatever,
the aim is to tell people that we value safety. Monitoring of safety is by safety officers taking rounds,
and by local supervisors of Institute and contractor. Some paper work is introduced like permits for
special jobs, attendance sheets, issue records for safety gear..
The whole process can move from simple to complex, depending on nature of work, but mainly ALL
Processes and Documents must show CLEAR AND TRANSPARENT INTENT AND WILL. Actual process /
documents are not so important. Like costing by Institute AND by Contractor, should show cost of safety
equipment(helmet, shoes), so that no one can say "Yeh to nahin pakdaa tha" what costs are
incorporated is not important, but putting a cost there shows clear intent, at least.
Basically, you can wake a guy who is sleeping, you cant wake a guy pretending to sleep !!
Regards,
Mukesh Anjaria
I, being a civil engineering graduate and working in one of the biggest civil engineering firms (CH2M
HILL), am very well aware of the safety issues on construction projects. CH2M HILL was the program
manager of the London Olympics infrastructure which took many years to build and there were no
fatalities or severe injuries during the construction of all sporting, housing, and transportation facilities.
CH2M HILL is also the program manager of the current Panama Canal expansion, started a few years ago
and to be completed by the end of next year, and so far there are no fatalities or severe injuries during
this massive construction, one of the largest construction projects of this century. We screen out
construction subcontractors if they have an unacceptable safety record even before we invite
subcontractors to bid on our projects, and we have penalty clauses in the contract with our
subcontractors for safety violations. In addition, we have onsite safety coordinators watching all
construction activities like a hawk (for safety compliance). All project and program managers have a
Target Zero (no health and safety incidents) goal in their annual performance goals/evaluation. And all
employees working in the field or on construction projects have annual health and safety training,
initially for a full week and then annually for one to two days. As a result, our safety record for the last
decade is much, much better than the industry average.
Let me try to have a dialogue with the new Director on this issue. I have met him only once, at a small
dinner this summer at his invitation when he was visiting the Bay Area. It has been less than a year for
him at IITK; so give him a little time to fix things. I will let him know that I am a batch coordinator of the
1967-1972 batch and am speaking on behalf of the batch.
Udai
Dear all,
Its a cause worthy of being taken up. Thanks for being the watch guard on it.
Regards,
Umakant
99 batch