What if our family members are not traced, kin of Sigachi victims question high-level committee

High-level committee headed by Chief Secretary Ramakrishna Rao examines the mishap site at Sigachi; question company management on whether they were following all safety protocols at work site

Sangareddy: The kin of victims, who were not yet traced after the accident at Sigachi Chloro Chemicals, raised a question before the high-level committee that visited Pashamylaram on Friday, asking them what would happen if their DNA did not match with any of the bodies found.

The high-level committee headed by Chief Secretary Ramakrishna Rao included Special Chief Secretary – Revenue Department, Special Chief Secretary – Industries, Principal Secretary – Labour and Employment, Director General, Fire, Disaster Response, Emergency and Civil Defence and Secretary – Medical, Health and Family Welfare as members.

Meanwhile, the expert committee headed by Emeritus Scientist of CSIR-IICT Dr B Venkateshwar Rao also joined the high-level committee during their visit. After examining the mishap site at Sigachi, both the teams questioned the representatives of the company management. They sought no objection certificates from different departments besides checking whether they had changed the machinery and equipment time to time. They also sought to know whether they were following all the safety protocols at work site. They enquired whether the officers of different departments were making time-to-time inspections.

After spending nearly three hours at the site, the team visited the rehabilitation centre set up for the victims’ kin and interacted with them. When they sought to know what would happen in respect of the bodies not found, the Chief Secretary said the district machinery was putting all out efforts to trace all those who were missing.

He was confident that all the missing persons would be traced. Rao said that the government and management will support the victims’ relatives. The government could identify 34 bodies out of 39. While five bodies were not identified until Friday evening, nine others were not traceable. Meanwhile, the officials were expecting more DNA reports from Central Forensic Science Lab by Friday night which would help them to identify the remaining bodies.