Loot and criminal neglect of the safety of life and property

On October 29, 2009, a huge fire broke out at the Sitapura (Jaipur) Terminal of Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOC). At least 11people lost their lives in the fire, many have suffered grievous injuries, tens of thousands of villagers in nearby villages have been forced to leave their homes and take refuge in camps and thousands of workers in nearby bastis have lost their jobs. The fire has continued for over two weeks since it broke out.

At the time of the fire, the terminal was holding approximately 5 million litres of petrol, 4 million litres of kerosene, and 41 million litres of High Speed Diesel. The main cause of the fire was excessive leakage of petrol from one of the tanks.

According to reports, the body valve of the tank in question could not be operated from the control room, therefore it required manual operation. Again according to reports, at about 4 pm, the body valve was deliberately opened to check how much leakage would take place. However petrol started gushing out as a huge spray. 

Indian Oil Corporation has a near monopoly position in the refining and distribution of petroleum products. Though set up as a “public” enterprise, right from its inception, this enterprise, as many other public enterprises, has been geared towards maximising the profits of big companies controlled by the rich, as well as for lining the coffers of government officials and top officials of the company too. The petroleum ministry in particular has been notorious in helping sections of the big bourgeoisie in India to enrich themselves by looting the natural resources of the people, which became amply clear during the revelations in the course of the recent dogfight between the Ambani brothers.

Hence the workers of IOC are correctly raising questions as to whether the leakage was accidental or engineered to adjust shortage of petrol. By the time senior IOC officials reached the spot, the dyke wall enclosure was half full with petrol. Since the control room system to monitor the body valve had failed or was deliberately sabotaged, there was no way to stop the further leakage without someone risking his life and reaching the body valve and closing it. 

Moreover, IOC officials did not take any steps to prevent the outbreak of fire; they did not start the sprinkler system of all other storage tanks, they did not begin the evacuation of product from storage tanks. Hence the fire spread and caused massive destruction of property of the people of the surrounding areas and also took the lives of several people, besides causing irreparable damage to the environment.  

What has raised suspicions about the deliberate engineering of leakage is that it is a well -known practice of IOC top officials to siphon of product and show leakages to adjust it.  According to press reports, IOC admitted a shortage of 130,000 Litres of petrol at the Jaipur terminal. There was an ongoing investigation by the CBI into petrol pilferage at the IOC Jaipur terminal and some top officials were under the scanner. Questions have also been raised as to whether the actual shortage was not much more and whether the fire at the Jaipur terminal was not deliberately organised to cover various tracks.

For instance, in a recent case at the Bhatinda HPCL terminal, it has been found that a number of trucks used for transporting HSD had been secretly modified to have illegal extra storage chambers to pilfer petrol and diesel. A similar case had been reported with respect to the IOC Jaipur. These trucks, which supply petrol or diesel to various petrol stations, thus are conduits for pilferage from the public sector petroleum terminals and the illegal booty is shared between some of the officials of the company.

The Rajasthan Pollution board has never checked whether the IOC terminal was following pollution and environment safety standards. This massive terminal was operating without any environmental clearance. The neglect of safety principles whichj are essential to safeguard the lives and property of the people is indeed criminal. The culpability of different departments of the state in the incident which has led to so much loss of life and property thus clearly stands out.

Petroleum Minister Murli Deora has announced a five member committee under the chairmanship of one Mr MB Lal, a retired Chairman of HPCL. The members of the Committee were handpicked from those who had either worked under the IOC top management, or who were beneficiaries of contracts awarded by IOC. Two weeks after this devastating fire, in which crores of rupees of property has been damaged, thousands of workers lost their homes and livelihood, the environment in a vast region stretching from Jaipur to Kota and Delhi has been badly affected, no one has been arrested or even held responsible for the fire. The situation demands that a peoples tribunal be constituted, which investigates the fire and the goings-on in the Jaipur terminal, so that the guilty are punished.

This incident points out to the glaring need to bring the natural resources, the land and all the large scale means of production under the control of the people, so that they can be run properly for the benefit of the entire society and not remain just “public enterprises” in name while acting as conduits for enrichment of a parasitic rich minority.

MEL expresses its deep sympathies for the families of the people killed in this fire. It demands that exemplary punishment be handed out to those responsible for the deaths and this massive destruction of the property of the people.