Nagpur: An official inquiry into the Feb 12 fire at a ginning factory in Kuhi taluka that killed a four-year-old boy found multiple workplace safety violations, leading police to book the factory owner, the Maharashtra legislative assembly was informed on Wednesday.Replying to a starred question on the fire at the Bhandarbodi village factory, labour minister Akash Fundkar said the Directorate of Industrial Safety and Health found the occupier had violated the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020, and the Maharashtra Factories Rules, 1963. The boy died in the Feb 12 blaze. A second fire, caused by a short circuit, destroyed hundreds of quintals of cotton.The unit was registered with the directorate in 2018 and holds a licence valid until 2028, the workers’ residential quarters were not part of the approved factory layout and had not received sanction, he said. TNNResponding to allegations that the fire was deliberately set to claim insurance, the govt said a Rs 35 crore bank loan recorded on Feb 5 was secured against a different plot and not the land on which the factory stands.The written reply did not clarify whether the factory would be allowed to resume operations or what action would be taken against the unauthorised workers’ quarters.The starred question was raised by MLAs Sanjay Meshram, Vikas Thakre, Aslam Shaikh, Nanabhau Patole, Amit Zanak, Amin Patel and Vishwajit Kadam.
