KARACHI, Aug 3 The rules governing boiler inspections have vastly curtailed boiler inspectors' purviews, resulting in their not conducting safety checks on boilers in their operational states, while in the case of boiler accidents, no-one is often held responsible at all, Dawn has learnt.

Sources at Sindh's directorate of industry, under whom the boiler inspectors fall, have told Dawn that boiler inspectors are only authorised to inspect the mechanical fitness of boilers, and not their operational fitness. As a result, while they do check for rust, mechanical faults and the presence of adequate equipment, they do not actually test the boiler under operational conditions, and nor are they authorised to check boilers at factories randomly.

Anwar Ali, the province's Chief Boiler Inspector, says “Most boiler accidents are due to instrumentation failure or the failure of the boiler attendant to deal with an emergency condition effectively”. He stresses that it is vital that daily and weekly checks be carried out by boiler attendants on the various pieces of equipment connected to the boiler.

Boiler attendants are certified by the Central Boiler Board, a central body which consists of both federal and provincial officials, and must pass a course to operate boilers in any industry.

Further, Sindh's boiler inspectors have been restrained from carrying out 'surprise' visits or random checks on boilers, even though they are empowered to do so under the Boiler and Pressure Vessels Ordinance 2002, which outlines their role and sets the rules for legal boiler operation. A notification (PA/DI/2000/1148-69) issued on Feb 12, 2000, by the then director of industries, Soomro Muhammad Ibrahim, reads “Boiler Inspectors shall not undertake casual visits of the industrial units for inspection of Boilers or for any purpose.”

The notification goes on to say that boiler inspectors must invariably give advance notice of at least five days to the Association/Chamber of Commerce and Industry concerned so that a member of said association may be present at the time of the boiler inspection.

At present, there are between 1,400 and 1,500 boilers in operation in industries across Sindh (of which approximately 75 per cent are in Karachi), and there are just one inspector and one chief inspector to inspect all of them, according to chief inspector (boilers) Ali.

The sanctioned strength is for one chief inspector and four inspectors. Mr Ali says the current shortage of staff is due to the fact that the monetary benefits to be had are better in the private sector for people who are qualified to be boiler inspectors. Boiler inspectors are required to have “a first class degree in boiler engineering and at least three years of practical experience working with boilers. Mechanical and electrical engineers are preferred,” Mr Ali says.

At present, all industries operating boilers are required to have their boiler fitness certificates renewed every year. The directorate of industries has a staff of 18 working on maintaining the records of all boilers, and a month before a boiler certificate is due to expire, a notice is sent to the industry, according to Mr Ali. The industry concerned will then pay the fees required for the inspection (between Rs2,400 and Rs7,000, depending on the size of the boiler) and send the boiler inspectors an invitation to inspect the boiler, which will be dismantled for the occasion, on a specified day. The boiler inspectors are then bound to carry out the inspection on that day. They do not, according to sources at the directorate, have the power to carry out checks on the boilers at any other time, and particularly not when the boiler is actually in operation. This is despite the fact that most accidents are not in fact mechanical in nature, as confirmed by chief inspector Ali.

June accident exposes flaws in process

A recent accident in SITE illustrates the problems presented by the current set up quite well. A boiler at a hosiery factory experienced a malfunction due to “shortage of water”, which led to “one cover plate breaking off due to backfiring”, according to a boiler inspectors' preliminary report of the incident.

The boiler “is equipped with an automatic feed water control system, which controls the level of water in the boiler and shuts it down if the water level becomes too low, but unfortunately the automatic system malfunctioned and the boiler was not shut down when the level of water in the boiler became low, causing overheating of the furnace flue and subsequent rupture of the welding joints between the furnace and the tube plates”, according to the same report.

Three young factory workers were killed in the accident, and the industry in question submitted a letter to the boiler inspectors stating that the accident occurred because the boiler attendant fell asleep and did not check the water levels. The boiler inspectors' final report concluded that the accident occurred due to “failure of the automatic boiler water control system and human error”.

Well placed sources said that in this case, the industry was going to pay compensation to the family of those killed, who included the boiler attendant's brother. It would appear, however, that at the very least the boiler attendant is culpable in the accidental deaths of the workers, as the industry explicitly stated in its statement that the accident was caused by the attendant's falling asleep, a conclusion which the boiler inspectors' report concurs with. No charges, however, have been pressed either against the boiler inspector, or the factory.

Speaking to Dawn, TPO SITE Syed Asad Raza confirmed that this was “often how these cases are finally settled”. When asked if the police pursue cases in cases of property damage or loss of life due to boiler accidents, he said that the police often had difficulty getting a complainant to file an FIR. “Normally the labourers do not want to press charges, as they get compensation from factory owners. We encourage them to approach us and lodge a case, but they feel it is easier to settle the matter between themselves,” he said.

He also said that the police “do not really have much coordination with boiler inspectors”.

Furthermore, each boiler has a registration book, and notes on its certificate. The notes indicate the steps the industry must take in order to ensure that the boiler fitness certificate remains valid. In the case of the boiler in SITE, the fitness certificate bore the following instruction, amongst others “Check low water cutoff daily.” This was not done, and the boiler inspector's report indicates that it was this which led to the accident, amongst other factors.

Boiler inspectors, meanwhile, say they are “helpless” when it comes to enforcement, as they cannot conduct spot checks on boilers, and neither can they inspect them under operation. This begs the question that if boiler inspectors are not authorised to conduct spot checks, or to conduct checks on the systems of the boilers which actually lead to almost all accidents, then what is the purpose of the office at all?