Director's response on safety issue to an Alumnus who kindly shared it with it us

Webmaster's Note: This is in response to an Alumnus who raised the safety issue with the Director after Citizens' Forum Email.

We thank the alumnus for sharing it with us. Some names removed for the web version.

From: Director, IITK.

Dated: 2013-10-07

Dear Dr ******,

As I mentioned during our recent telephone conversation, I do agree that we must develop a comprehensive and robust safety measures on the construction site as per the law of the land.

At the same time there is no point over-emphasizing the issue and ignoring more important agenda. This issue is personally very close to me as there was a fatal accident at the very beginning of my tenure as Director of this Institute. I am told that there have been FIVE cases since 2007 involving death of workmen working on the constructions sites of the campus. Although there have been five more cases but they are not related to contract workers working as daily labours hired by a contractor (possibly they were either a relative of the workmen or a sub-contractor). In any case, death of any sort by accident or negligence within IITK is not acceptable to me.

However, I would like you to appreciate that since the occurrence of the last such incident on 21.11.2012, the Institute has taken following measures in order to ensure safety of workmen at construction site;

  1. A team of Central Building Research Institute (CBRI), Roorkee was invited to visit all constructions sites of the campus and the suggestions made by them have been incorporated for the ongoing contracts.

  2. Pending a comprehensive monitoring of the construction project in place, no new constructions activities have been initiated. A Project Management Consultant (PMC) Firm has now been appointed to look into all aspects of the contract, including safety measures, to be adopted and stringently followed up at all construction sites.

  3. We have decided to invite from time to time safety experts from other organisations to hold workshops on the campus. In this series, the Institute has invited Mr. *********, Safety Consultant of the L&T Group to hold a workshop in January 2013. Similarly, Mrs. *********, Safety Consultant of the Reliance Group was also invited to hold another workshop on the campus in August 2013 to train our Site Engineers to monitor safety measures on the construction site more cohesively.

  4. The contractors have been advised to impart regular training to their workmen so that they could do their work more proficiently by having due regard to their own safety and security. In addition, the site engineers also have been advised to oversee such trainings.

  5. A Safety Officer has been appointed by the Institute with due process and he will be joining in the month of November, 2013. The safety Officer shall personally ensure all safety measures at all work sites and shall be sufficiently empowered to issue orders for corrective measures, should there be any such need. He will be asked to supervise the training of all construction workers with a particular emphasis on safety and security. The safety Officer shall report directly to the Director.

  6. The Institute is also in the process of recruiting a Labour Officer who shall be responsible to the Director for compliance of all relevant labour laws and welfare of the contract labour on the campus.

  7. Let me reiterate that I personally went to International Labour Office in Delhi, met three different lawyers, held consultation the Ministry of Human Resource Development of Labour issues and met the contractors 2-3 times in between to serve the strictest warning about how they must ensure safety at site. There are many more measures contemplated which I’ll share in due course.

While enumerating the above measures we are conscious that these measures are not exhaustive, hence we are open to any workable and pragmatic suggestion that would help the Institute overcome the possible loop holes, if any.

Hope, you will appreciate the above and apprise all the alumni of the progresses made by the Institute in this direction.

Best regards,

Director, IITK.