Telangana factory tragedy: Safety violations and lack of fire safety mechanisms revealed
The inspection, on Dec 12, 2024, by deputy chief inspector of factories, Nizamabad, G Nehru, also found multiple lapses. Independent experts, after reviewing the inspection report, said: "This is not just negligence - it is a collapse of the regulatory mechanism meant to protect workers."
When contacted for a response, Sigachi Industries, in an email, said: "An official investigation and root cause analysis is currently underway. We will share the findings of the outcome once we have the report."
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The unit, which has been certified ISO 45001:2018 and manufactures microcrystalline cellulose powder , was found lacking in imparting training and providing protective gear to workers.
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Hindustan Times
6 days ago
- Hindustan Times
Karnataka State Commission for Women urges CM to form SIT in Dharmasthala case
Karnataka State Commission for Women chairperson Nagalakshmi Chowdhury on Monday urged chief minister Siddaramaiah to form a special investigation team (SIT) to probe allegations of mass graves, disappearances, and crimes against women and students in Dharmasthala over the past two decades. a daily-wage labourer has claimed that he personally buried more than 100 bodies in and around Dharmasthala (File photo) This comes in the wake of a court deposition by a daily-wage labourer, who under tight security on Friday claimed that he had personally buried more than 100 bodies in and around Dharmasthala. His identity has been withheld due to security concerns. In a letter, Chowdhury said: 'In connection with the above subject and statement, a person has recorded a statement in court claiming to have buried hundreds of bodies in the Dharmasthala region.' She noted that the Women's Commission had taken serious note of both the court statement and media reports aired on July 12, which mentioned the discovery of a human skull and included comments from the family of a missing medical student. 'The Commission has taken the media report and the statement of the man who claimed to have buried bodies very seriously,' she wrote. 'These suggest a disturbing pattern of severe abuse, murders, rapes, unnatural deaths, and disappearances involving several women and students over more than 20 years.' She also flagged reports from families who had faced inaction from law enforcement. 'Many families have alleged that police did not respond properly when they went to file cases about their missing or deceased children,' the letter said. Given the gravity of the allegations, Chowdhury called for an independent and high-level probe. 'I therefore request the formation of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) under the leadership of senior police officers to conduct a comprehensive and impartial investigation into cases of missing women and students, unnatural deaths, murders, and sexual assaults that have occurred in the Dharmasthala region over the last 20 years,' she wrote. The state government has not yet issued a response to the demand. The daily-wage labourer had first approached Dharmasthala police with a complaint on July 4. He was represented by advocates Ojaswi Gowda and Sachin S Deshpande. On July 10, he was granted protection under the Witness Protection Scheme, 2018. He appeared before the principal civil judge and judicial magistrate in Belthangady around 4.40 pm on Friday, wearing a mask and escorted by his legal team. Inside the courtroom, he reportedly reaffirmed his claims and gave details about the locations where he said the bodies — mostly of women and young girls — had been buried. His statement lasted nearly 80 minutes and was recorded in full. He was later taken into police custody for further legal procedures. His advocates confirmed the witness protection granted to him. 'A communication to this effect was sent to us on the evening of July 10 by the authorities concerned. The complainant conveys his gratitude to the district judiciary, Dakshina Kannada, the police authorities in Dakshina Kannada and the Government of Karnataka for acting expeditiously on the request for witness protection,' the advocates said.
The Hindu
11-07-2025
- The Hindu
Sigachi Industries explosion: A deafening blast, a lingering silence
The morning of July 2 dawned under a stubborn drizzle, the kind that clung to skin and silence alike. Outside the scorched ruins of Sigachi Industries, 35-year-old Savreen Parbin stood beneath a tree near the factory's main gate, her dupatta soaked, her hands clutching a mobile phone and an Aadhaar card. They belonged to her husband, Tasallimuddin Ansari. The last things she would carry back home to her children. Just days earlier, the 40-year-old contract worker from Dawa village of Bihar's Bhojpur district had become a permanent employee at the chemical factory in Telangana's Sangareddy district, earning a monthly salary of ₹20,000 after three years on the job. On the morning of June 30, he had joined over 140 workers for duty and by 9 a.m., he was one of 44 confirmed dead. His body was buried under the debris of a collapsed G+1 production shed, that came down by a deafening blast that shook the town and shattered families. 'He had called me at 7.20 a.m.,' recalls Parbin, her voice barely rising above the mist that hung thick with the faint stench of ammonia. 'He was walking to work then. I didn't tell our children about the blast. I flew down to Hyderabad alone. They kept asking if I was bringing their father back home,' she adds, sobbing. Now, drenched in the drizzle, she waited, like dozens of others, for a name, a body, an answer. Inside the factory compound, 47 kilometres from Hyderabad, rescue teams picked through blackened rubble and chemical fumes that grew more suffocating with each step toward the gate. The explosion had turned a workplace into a death trap, leaving families to scan morgue lists and hoping against hope for a miracle. The Sigachi unit sits in the heart of an industrial belt dense with chemical, plastic and pharmaceutical factories. A petrol station is barely 700 metres away. Three schools, including the Zilla Parishad High School and Telangana Minorities Residential School for Boys, lie within a 2.5-km radius. Rescue efforts had dragged through the previous night, slowed by downpour and debris. By the morning of July 2, the skies were still weeping. So were the people outside Sigachi. As of July 10, a total of 44 workers were confirmed dead and over 30 injured. According to Sangareddy District Collector P. Pravinya, the identification process was harrowing; some bodies were so mangled they required DNA testing. She says the eight missing men cannot be declared as deceased yet. 'They are officially listed as 'missing' in the district records. None of the DNA samples have matched with them. We have counselled the families of the eight about this situation. A report stating the same is being sent to the government,' she informs. A factory in ruins, a town in shock Around 9 a.m. on June 30, a massive explosion ripped through the Pashamylaram industrial estate. The production shed at Sigachi Industries where microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) was manufactured had crumbled like a sandcastle, leaving behind a wasteland of scorched concrete and twisted metal. MCC, a pharmaceutical binder, is Sigachi's flagship product. With units in both Telangana and Gujarat, the company is among India's top manufacturers — but on this day, its reputation lay buried beneath rubble and ash. By 9.37 a.m., the fire control room had been alerted. Fifteen fire tenders rolled in. Police, medical staff and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams followed, battling flames and smoke to reach those trapped inside. Eyewitnesses say the sound of the blast echoed for kilometres. Inside the factory, it had shredded walls, pipelines, flesh and every semblance of order. Rescue workers moved through what seemed like a battlefield. Steel had curled like wire. Fire licked at fractured pipes. Emergency teams fought fire, smoke and falling structures as they searched for any sign of life. Outside, panic and grief collided. A woman in dark green salwar-kameez darted between gates, screaming, 'Mera beta nahi mil raha!' Her son, in his 20s, hadn't been seen since the explosion. Around her, voices blended into a chorus of names — missing sons, brothers, husbands. A dust-covered man, reeking of chemicals, spoke of three relatives still unaccounted for: 'I can't recognise anyone. They are burnt beyond recognition.' Revenue department officials had set up a makeshift desk at the gate, noting names, contact details, and last known sightings. 'We will update you once we have clarity,' one said, eyes glued to the register. Sai Reddy, a local youth, had arrived minutes after the blast and filmed the wreckage: a factory bus with blown-out windows, workers on the ground, motionless. 'Their skin was peeling. One was unconscious. They carried him out by his limbs,' he says. Many of the workers were migrants — from Bihar, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh — hired for 12-hour shifts that paid around ₹750 a day. Officially, the factory followed an eight-hour shift cycle: 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., 2 p.m. to 10 p.m., and 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. But overtime was routine. Phones had to be surrendered at the gate and collected only after sign-out — a rule that, in hindsight, added a cruel layer to the search, as dozens of devices lay unanswered at the security desk. According to district officials, 143 people were present inside the compound at the time of the blast. As of July 7, a total of 57 had been confirmed safe while 34 others were still battling injuries in hospitals across Sangareddy, Hyderabad and beyond. 'We managed to pull out about 30 men alive and rushed 25 to nearby hospitals,' shares NDRF Deputy Commander Damodar Singh. The victims were first taken to Kakatiya Hospital, and later shifted to private facilities as the scale of injuries became clear. 'Those weren't routine burns,' says Srinivas Reddy, superintendent of Patancheru Government Hospital, located just 20 minutes from the site. 'It wasn't just the fire — the blast force tore bodies apart. Some were found in pieces.' Sridhar Chary, head of forensics and in-charge of autopsies, describes the remains that arrived in plastic sheets. Some, he says, were no larger than a cushion: 'Families came with keychains, photos… anything they thought might help us identify their loved ones. But without DNA, it was impossible to confirm.' A preventable disaster? The question hung in the air like the acrid fumes lingering over the ruins: Could this have been avoided? On July 2, Telangana government announced the formation of a four-member expert panel to probe the blast. Tasked with piecing together the sequence of events, the committee would assess worker safety protocols, investigate possible violations in industrial and chemical handling, and determine whether lapses by the management led to the tragedy. Y. Mohan Babu, Joint Chief Inspector of Factories, confirms that the inquiry is being jointly conducted with the State-appointed panel. Preliminary findings point to the dryer unit as the origin point of the blast, likely due to pressure build-up and static charge. 'It was not a reactor blast. We are reviewing the unit's safety and maintenance records. Some observations have been made, but we will comment further once the full investigation is complete,' he explains. District Fire Officer B. Nageswara Rao says Pashamylaram is a designated Industrial Development Area, 'an IDA meant solely for factories'. 'We conduct drills with locals every three months to prepare for emergencies,' he adds. Sigachi Industries filed a notice with the stock exchange on June 30, stating that operations at the Hyderabad unit would be suspended for 90 days due to extensive damage to core manufacturing infrastructure. The filing, however, made no mention of casualties. Two days later, the company issued a public statement dismissing reports that the blast was caused by a reactor. 'We would like to clarify that the accident was not caused by a reactor explosion,' it read. According to the statement, the company was coordinating emergency relief efforts and had announced an ex-gratia compensation of ₹1 crore per deceased worker, along with medical and rehabilitation support for the injured. Still, the damage — physical, emotional and reputational — was already unfolding. A criminal case was filed against the company's management. By the next trading day, Sigachi's shares had plunged 18%, reflecting not just market anxiety, but a deeper erosion of public trust. In the days following the explosion, the scene around Sigachi Industries remained grim. A steady drizzle fell over the shattered compound, mingling with fine grey dust kicked up by movement. Families of the missing stood silently outside, huddled under plastic sheets, waiting for names, for remains, for anything that resembled closure. Inside the blast zone, rescue teams returned for another sweep. By July 9, they had recovered 70 human remains. Sixty-seven of them were matched to deceased workers through forensic analysis — bones like the patella, femur and fibula, found scattered across the debris. Temporary barricades were set up so that the skeletal fragments could be collected without public disruption and transferred to hospital labs for further testing. Warnings ignored, questions remain Each time the rain intensified, the pace of rescue operations slowed — and the patience of waiting families wore thin. Anger rippled through the community as fresh allegations surfaced. According to an FIR filed with Sangareddy police, workers had warned the management about faulty machinery. The complaint, filed by 21-year-old Sai Yashwanth, alleged that his father, Rajanala Venkat Jagan Mohan — one of the deceased — had repeatedly raised concerns about deteriorating equipment. Other workers had voiced similar fears, but the company allegedly ignored them and continued operations. Yashwanth received the news of the explosion from his uncle around 11 a.m. that day. He rushed to Patancheru Government Hospital, only to find his father in the mortuary. 'Some of the bodies were so badly burnt, they couldn't even be recognised,' he says. Still, not everyone knew of prior warning signs. Uday, a senior worker with nine years at the plant who narrowly escaped the blast, says: 'We never felt anything was wrong with the machines. If something had seemed risky, we would have spoken up.' The BDL Bhanur police registered a case under multiple sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, including culpable homicide not amounting to murder, attempt to commit culpable homicide and voluntarily causing grievous hurt. Sangareddy Superintendent of Police Paritosh Pankaj says investigations are ongoing. 'Eight workers are listed as missing. We are conducting daily searches. Expert teams are collecting factory records, equipment logs and physical evidence to probe any possible negligence or intent.' On July 8, officials from the National Disaster Management Authority visited the site as part of the ongoing inquiry. Forensic lab reports and technical assessments are awaited to reconstruct the sequence of events and to establish accountability. At the Sigachi site, the second week of July brought the growl of earthmovers and the sharp scent of disturbed rubble. But in the spaces between the noise, silence lingered. Families still stood by the barricades, faces drained, eyes scanning the debris for answers that never came. Among them was Parbin, her dupatta still damp, her grip still tight around her husband's phone — the only thing the company returned to her. She would soon leave for Bihar, carrying home no body, no ashes, no final moment to remember. 'My children are still asking for their father,' she says, her voice breaking. 'I don't know what to tell them.'
The Hindu
10-07-2025
- The Hindu
Sigachi Factory Blast: Telangana's Worst Industrial Disaster Raises Many Urgent Questions about Migrant Worker Safety
Published : Jul 10, 2025 16:21 IST - 13 MINS READ Even 10 days after the deadly blast at the Sigachi Industries in Pashamylaram in Sangareddy district of Telangana, disaster response staff continue to sift through the ash-filled debris for human remains. On June 30, an explosion at the multi-floored Sigachi factory engulfed its workers in a massive fire. The blast collapsed the building, trapping dozens of workers under the rubble. The devastating impact of the accident has left behind several fragmented and charred bodies, necessitating DNA analysis for identification. The survivors of the blast reported that there was no scope for escape. As many as 44 workers have been declared dead as of July 10, and over a dozen workers are undergoing treatment at various private hospitals. Of the 143 workers at the factory on the day of the accident, less than half (61) have been marked as safe. Eight workers remain classified as 'not traceable'. 'Missing workers haven't been declared dead yet. The company has paid an interim compensation of Rs. 15 lakhs. Rescue operations are ongoing and will continue until we confirm that there are no other human remains at the site,' Badugu Chandrashekar, additional collector of Sangareddy, told Frontline. Irfan Ansari, 22, from Deogarh district in Jharkhand, is presumed dead, but his remains haven't been found yet. Ansari's family has submitted DNA samples twice, but there hasn't been any match among the remains. The bureaucratic delays have left families distraught. 'What do they hope to find in the ashes? We have seen families receiving 10-15kg of human remains. It is painful to witness. The government should set a cut-off date for this search operation and declare him dead', Ansari's uncle, Salauddin, told Frontline. The government gave the families of missing workers the option to wait for the remains to be found or accept interim compensation and return to their homes. Even as they await closure, most have accepted the latter. The Government Area Hospital in Patancheru is coordinating the forensic investigations and handing over the bodies to the families. The hospital often admits injured workers from nearby industries, but nothing on the scale of the Sigachi accident has ever been witnessed before. This accident is being termed the worst industrial accident witnessed in Telangana (and possibly India) in recent times. Established in 1989, Sigachi Industries is a leading manufacturer of microcrystalline cellulose (MCC), a material commonly used by the pharmaceutical industry as a binder, disintegrant, filler, and lubricant. The company has clients in over 65 countries. In their press releases since the accident, the company claims that it has operated as an 'incident-free' unit for nearly 35 years. Also Read | What the Hyderabad fire tells us about how Indian cities are built to burn Questions persist over the cause of the accident as a government probe is expected to take some more time to submit a final report. On July 8, the National Disaster Management Authority visited the site for investigations. The fateful day Multiple senior officials, requesting anonymity, confirmed that the leading theory is that the explosion originated in the dryer. They also noted that the sensors seem to have failed to trigger the alarm systems. Sigachi Industries has yet to make a statement on the cause of the accident. 'Based on experience and existing literature, a primary explosion seems to have occurred within the spray dryer. The pressure wave and gases from that caused the dislodging of accumulated dust in different parts. The dispersed and airborne dust would have resulted in a dust explosion [secondary explosion]. The secondary explosion is often more destructive, and that led to the building's collapse', Kalapala Babu Rao, a retired scientist from the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, told Frontline. He has been studying industrial accidents and is a member of the Scientists for People coalition. 'In India, we have no regulations to handle combustible dust. What we need is regulation and continuous hazard monitoring', he added. 'What do they hope to find in the ashes? We have seen families receiving 10-15kg of human remains. It is painful to witness. The government should set a cut-off date for this search operation and declare him dead.' woker Irfan Ansari's uncle. Some experts believe that the maintenance issues could have been the trigger for the accident. 'At Sigachi, processing, packing, and quality control were all in the same building. The packing area on the ground floor had 30-35 people and most of them died. The quality control was on the first floor and had about five or six people', explained Y. Nagi Reddy, the Director General of Telangana State Disaster Response and Fire Services (TSDRFS). 'Industrial design plays a crucial role in ensuring worker safety,' he added. An FIR has been registered against Sigachi following complaints from a deceased worker's son. Venkat Jagan Mohan had been working at Sigachi for nearly two decades. His son, Sai Yashwanth, insists that his father and others had approached the Sigachi management several times to replace the 'old machinery'. The company has been booked under BNS sections 105 (punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 110 (attempt to commit culpable homicide), and 117 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt). Inadequate fire equipment and exits Meanwhile, a leaked inspection report from the Factories Department, dated December 2024, lists several lapses at Sigachi. The report highlighted inadequate fire equipment and fire exits, as well as the absence of rubber matting or insulation near the electrical panel board, loose and temporary electric wiring, the lack of automatic fire extinguishing appliances, and the absence of an inert gas suppression system to manage electrical emergencies. The report also mentioned the absence of personal protective equipment for workers and the lack of adequate and periodic training. The latter was confirmed by workers who reported having received limited training during the onboarding process. Some workers believed that they weren't handling 'chemicals'. When Frontline sought clarifications on the factory inspection, safety violations, and action initiated, the Director of the Factories Department declined to be interviewed, stating that 'This is not the right time to ask such questions'. TSDRFS officials confirmed to Frontline that the fire management systems at Sigachi were inadequate. The Pollution Control Board inspections appear to have been lax, as evidenced by the empty environmental display board at Sigachi, which is supposed to contain information about effluents, hazardous waste, and other key relevant details. In recent years, other similar accidents have spotlighted the issue of negligent and watered-down regulatory checks without much course-correction from successive governments. A chemical Explosion at SB Organics in Sangareddy district killed six and injured 19 on April 3, 2024. The Director of Factories constituted an eight-member committee. Babu Rao was one of them. Frontline accessed the draft Incident Investigation Report, in which experts noted that: 'There is no evidence that either the company or the regulatory bodies recognised the hazardous nature of the process being permitted and ensured needed safety measures. Our effort to investigate the incident faced the unavailability of needed process safety information from the company or the regulatory offices'. Officials have reportedly not signed the report, and thus, the recommendations made to avoid similar accidents were overlooked. The company paid a fine of Rs.31 lakh levied by the Telangana Pollution Control Board. The suo motu case at the National Green Tribunal was closed in March this year. While the Sigachi Industries lacked a No-Objection Certificate (NOC) from the Fire Department, officials said that not all factories have NOCs. The NOC is conditional upon the height and type of the building, among other factors. Officials can't put an exact number on how many such factories might be operational, but said it would be in thousands. According to data shared by the TSDRFS, of the nearly 45 lakh buildings in Hyderabad (residential, industrial, commercial, and all other categories), the department has issued provisional NOCs to 7,555 and occupancy NOCs to 3,873 buildings. In November, at a seminar on Fire Safety, TSDRFS shared that in the pharma sector alone, there were nearly 100 major fire accidents in Telangana. Even where Fire NOCs exist, the department doesn't have the power to initiate criminal prosecution in case of violations. Court cases often drag on for years, resulting in the imposition of small fines in most cases. As per the Standard Reference Note of 2024 from the Directorate General of Factory Advice Service and Labour Institutes (DGFASLI), Telangana has 4,378 hazardous process factories and over 5.3 lakh workers employed in them. In 2023-24, annual inspections were done at 1,465 hazardous factories. Telangana has 17,758 working factories that are registered with the Factories Department. In 2023-24, Telangana had 21 factory accidents, causing 65 fatalities and 118 injuries. Most experts suggest that the unreported numbers would be significantly higher. Further, the unregistered factories would again be in the thousands, whereas the Factories department is understaffed, with 27 factory inspectors overseeing all of Telangana. The ease of doing business Several activists placed the blame on Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) and the amendments to compliance requirements for the compromised safety of workers across the country. 'Ideally, the Factories Department should conduct inspections once every three months (at hazardous locations), but they don't even do it annually any more. Not only the Sigachi management and owners but also the Central and State governments should be held accountable for the accident. If regulatory frameworks were not diluted, the safety wouldn't have been compromised', said Centre of Indian Trade Unions State Secretary P. Bhaskar. Since 2014, the Central government has pushed for reforms under EoDB. The Central government's Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) website lists some of the best practices followed by the States to facilitate an investor-friendly ecosystem. Other States are encouraged to emulate such 'reforms'. In 2014, the Telangana government enacted the Telangana Industrial Project Approval and Self-Certification System (TG-iPASS) Act 2014. Some of the changes brought about by TS-iPASS are: slashing documents needed from 100 documents only 12 documents across departments, an end-to-end online process, self-certifications and joint inspections in place of inspections by multiple departments, approvals for all projects to be made within 15-30 days, deemed approvals in case of delay by departments, and penalty on officials for delay in approvals. According to a document from the DPIIT dated September 2024, the Central and State governments have reduced 2,739 and 25,673 compliances to date. Approximately 6,200 compliances have been retained across the country, whereas over 2,500 compliances are under review (to be eliminated). The Factories Act, which regulates the health, safety, and working conditions of workers, is the one that has been subjected to the most reforms. A government order from 2021 (Telangana) details minimising regulatory burden for over 600 compliances from the Factories Act and Rules, including employee safety and welfare checks. Except in cases of complaints or accidents, the inspections and verifications from the factories department have been eliminated as long as the industries submit self-certification or third-party verification. Further compliance relaxations, process simplification, and decriminalisation are under review. The DPIIT document lists dozens of 'pain points identified by the industry,' such as building permits, plan approval, fire NOC and renewals, land use, permissions concerning boilers, electricity NOC, and pollution control-related approvals. A senior official said that last week, an EoDB meeting of all States discussed the possibility of not insisting on enforcing the National Building Code (NBC) guidelines. The official said that, as such, NBC is not ideal; it is the minimum standard requirements one should follow. It would be concerning for workers' safety if we were to dilute it. 'We have submitted a recommendation that won't compromise EoDB. We want all buildings, including factories, to self-certify that they meet the minimum NBC requirements for fire and life safety. Additionally, the buildings should meet the minimum standards of their respective sector. The department can follow through by doing annual inspections of a randomly generated sample', Nagi Reddy told Frontline. Where's the compensation? On the day of the Sigachi blast, Chief Minister (CM) Revanth Reddy announced a compensation of Rs 1 lakh to the dead and Rs 50,000 to the injured as immediate relief. Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced an ex gratia payment of Rs 2 lakhs to the deceased and Rs 50,000 to the injured. Bihar and Odisha have also announced ex gratia packages. The company committed to the Rs 1 crore ex gratia to the deceased workers as directed by the CM, but the compensation to the injured workers has remained vaguely worded as 'full medical and rehabilitation support (Sigachi press release)'. The initial amount announced by Revanth Reddy has been handed over to the families, but neither the government nor the companies have provided any timeline about the ex-gratia. The families of the injured workers haven't had any confirmation about the amount even 10 days into the accident. 'We heard from the Telangana government that the company will deposit Rs.10 lakhs for the severely injured and Rs.5 lakhs for minor injuries,' an Odisha officer on special duty, Pritish Panda, told Frontline. Also Read | No love lost for labour The company has paid Rs.15 lakhs interim compensation to the families of missing workers. For these families to receive the rest of the ex-gratia, the Telangana government has to initiate the legal process to pronounce them dead. It might at least take three more months. Civil society members are trying to get the timelines of compensation expedited. Of the 44 workers who died in the blast, 10 were from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, and the rest belonged to Bihar, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, and Madhya Pradesh. Most workers found the job through village networks, their kin, and neighbours. Ganga Mukhya's wife says he migrated to Hyderabad nearly four years ago and is the primary source of income for his five children, wife, and parents. She only knows that he worked 12-hour shifts (four-hour overtime) and made Rs.18,000 a month (after the PF and ESI cuttings). She wasn't aware if he would have health insurance for future medical bills. In its annual report for the financial year 2023-24, Sigachi listed all of its 429 workers (across all units in India) under the 'other than permanent' category. As per the report, while Sigachi employees have both health and accident insurance, the workers only have the latter. The total cost incurred for the well-being of all employees and workers that financial year was 0.60 per cent of the total revenue. Several workers have months of recovery (from burns) ahead of them, but it is unclear if they will be paid for their medical bills, retain their jobs or be compensated for work days lost. Trade union leaders demand that both the Central and State governments commit to providing better compensation and develop a thorough policy for the future rather than deciding such amounts based on whims and media frenzy. 'Aside from what the company pays, the State and Central government should pay higher compensation. How can they let go of the responsibility towards workers by paying such small amounts like Rs.1 or 2 lakh?' asked Bhaskar. Frontline reached out to Sigachi representatives and will update the story once we receive their response.
