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EDITOR: NAGARAJA.M.R .. .. VOL.21 ………. ISSUE.85......…….23/10/2025
Sigachi disaster: Civil society demands industrial overhaul, workplaces safety
A coalition of civil society organizations on August 26 demanded urgent and systemic reforms to industrial safety in Telangana, a southern Indian state.
The demand came at a workshop organized in the backdrop of the June 30 explosion at Sigachi Industries in Pashamailaram in SangaReddy, some 50 km northwest of the state capital of Hyderabad, that killed 46 people and wounded 33 others.
Around eight people have gone missing after the accident, considered the worst industrial disaster after the 1984 Bhopal tragedy.
An investigation revealed potential safety lapses, including outdated machinery and expired fire safety clearance, leading to a culpable homicide case against the company’s management. The Telangana government also ordered the company to compensate the victims and their families.
The workshop on “Safe Workplaces – Putting People Before Profit,” was organized by Scientists for People, Montfort Social Institute, Human Rights Forum, Telangana People’s Joint Action Committee, and the Working People’s Coalition.
Several relatives of the Sigachi disaster attended the workshop that was held at the Montfort Social Institute.
One family member described the agony his agony of watching his relative dying in the hospital after suffering severe burns. Another family shared the unbearable pain of a relative whose body was never recovered. “We did not even get mud,” stated a family member.
The workshop highlighted the recurrence of refusal to learn, a failure of regulatory agencies, and oversight, an absence of enforcement.
“There is an unacceptable delay even after a month in giving the compensation,” said a press release issued by the organizers.
The meeting demanded that the announced compensation be paid promptly and fully instead of the micro instalments being done right now.
The workshop demanded that industry and government take steps to avoid disasters. The participants urged immediate steps to strengthen regulatory capacity and enforcement in Telangana’s industrial hubs.
It also called for considering legal accountability through industrial manslaughter laws, institutionalizing worker participation in safety decisions, mandate transparent incident reporting, and ensure long-term support for affected families and migrant workers.
The organizers affirmed that “safety is everyone’s job” and vowed to continue advocating for reforms that unequivocally put people’s lives before profit.
Jeevan Kumar of the Human Rights Forum, who addressed the workshop, pointed out that as many as 135 people have died and 370 were seriously wounded in industrial accidents around Hyderabad during 2023-2025.
“These factories don’t provide basic safety. It is high time we questioned the government and institutions and hold them liable for gaps in their promises,” Kumar asserted.
Montfort Brother Varghese Theckanath, director of the Montfort Social Institute,bemoaned that the Sigachi deadly incident is the result of prioritizing industrial growth over safety in the name of ease of doing business.
K. Babu Rao, a retired scientist and member of the Scientists for People, saw “a pattern in the recurring industrial accidents which are avoidable.” Citing the examples of industrial accidents where no legal action on the company was taken, he questioned the political will behind safety reforms.
“All these deaths are manslaughter. The question is – do we have the social and political will to stop them?” he asked.
P G Rao from Scientists for People, stressed the need for a culture of shared responsibility between management and workers.
Legal practitioner Akhil Surya, in his critical analysis of the legal landscape, detailed how laws like the Employees Compensation Act, 1923, are ill-suited to provide justice, and highlighted the alarming changes in the new labor codes and the centralization of safety protocols that remove the power of state governments to update the list of hazardous industries.
Surya wants the state to bear responsibility for its failure to ensure compliance by the factories and that one should not let the grant of “ex gratia” compensation divert focus away from affixing accountability on the factories and the state.
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