April 30, 2006	Sunday	Rabi-us-Sani 1, 1427

KARACHI, April 28: The Sindh Civil Defence Directorate has issued notices to the exporters to have their factories inspected for the civil defence needs including the fire-fighting arrangements.

Talking to Dawn many exporters described the move a fresh bid by the inspecting agency to disturb the smooth flow of production. They maintained that their factories were already socially compliant under the WTO rules and teams of foreign buyers regularly visited their factories to see the health and safety standards.

They referred to a recent statement of the deputy secretary industries who had stated that the number of industrial inspections had been reduced from 23 to only six which were also clubbed together into one inspection once a year. The notices issued by Additional Controller Civil Defence (West) Karachi asked the factory owners to take necessary measures to install fire-fighting equipment and make First Aid arrangements within the factory premises.

The notices directed the exporters to intimate the existing stocks of the requisite measures/arrangements being obligatory taken so far or streamlined within a fortnight from the date of receipt of the notice, failing which punitive action under the law would be taken against “your establishment at your sole risks”.

The notices further said that the additional controller would conduct physical verification/ inspection shortly or soon after the expiry of the notice period.

The exporters were directed to provide information about total number of fire extinguishers installed in the factory, their operational validity duly supported with necessary documents, place of installation indicating department wise positions, list of rescue equipments if any, list of staff trained from the area civil defence training centre.

The exporters were also directed to provide information on contingency plans showing therein rehearsals or any kind of exercise in order to face with unexpected eventuality/hazards at initial stages or till the arrival of a rescue agency.

The exporters described the directive as arbitrary issue without taking exporter associations into confidence.