Jharkhand Governor Draupadi Murmu today emphasised the need of safety and health of the employees of the steel industry.

Addressing the inaugural session of the international seminar on ‘Safety and Health in the Steel Industry’ organized by Joint Committee on Safety, Health & Environment in the Steel Industry and Steel Authority of India Ltd at Ispat Bhawan in Ranchi,she congratulated the organizers of the seminar for choosing safety and health in the steel industry as the focal theme of the conference.

“A safe working environment for all the employees and an accident free working place is the top most priority for the management of an iron and steel plant.  Historically, iron and steel making consisted of dangerous processes and prone to accidents. Today, many steel organizations in the world recognize that this is no longer an appropriate statement for a modern and technically advanced steel industry”,she said.

“Safety in workplace is of prime importance in the iron and steel plant. Safety depends very much on the employee’s  reaction to potential hazards. The responsibility for the management is to provide the safest possible physical conditions, but for safety, it is always necessary to obtain everyone’s cooperation in the safety programs”,she pointed out.

More,she said that steel making is a complex and hazardous process.”Main hazards are heat, dust, smoke, moving equipment, chemicals, fire and explosion, metal and slag, gas poisoning etc. The health, safety and protection of employees, equipment and the environment are of serious concern since steel plant is an industry of hazardous nature.  The health and safety of employees is crucial since it affects both economic and social factors. It is necessary that steel plant management recognizes the advantages of safe work environments and progressively adopt safety management practices to prevent hazardous events, avoid production and manpower losses. A safe work place also contributes towards plants competitiveness as well as in profit growth”,the Governor said.

“Indian Steel Industry recognizes the importance of Safety & Occupational health. Due emphasis is laid on bringing in continual improvement in the productivity in a safe & healthy working environment. The ultimate objective is to produce accident-free steel. Steel produced is the result of untiring efforts of the persons involved round the clock. So safety & occupational health of personnel involved in the steel making process, be it a regular or a contractual employee, are of equal importance. Success of any business organization largely depends upon adopting best practices in the arena of Safety & Occupational health.

Indian steel industry is moving up steadily in the global market and large scale modernization & expansion programmes are being taken up in our country. Accordingly with the up-gradation of technologies, new challenges are also emerging in the area of safety and occupational health. Due emphasis needs to be given for imparting effective training & education for enhancing the manpower skill. I feel that the International Seminar, ISSHR2015 which is being organized for the first time is very timely and moreover the theme (Quest for Excellence) is of utmost relevance in view of the present competitive business scenario.

As I understand, Joint committee on Safety, Health and Environment (JCSSI) having representation from Trade Union and Management of all leading steel producers of the country is sincerely working for creating a safe and healthy work environment in steel industry.

I congratulate JCSSI and all associated personnel for the commendable efforts made in organizing the International Seminar for the benefit of steel fraternity. I hope that the seminar will provide a unique platform to all the participating organizations in benchmarking their safety and health standard for further improvement.

I wish the two day international seminar on safety and health a grand success”,Governor Murmu said.