MB Lal Committee Recommendations | UPSC

HEADLINES:

Assam fire: MB Lal Committee recommendations not implemented for a decade

WHY IN NEWS:

One of the recommendations, of building emergency response centres to handle major oil fires was to be completed in 2014

SYLLABUS COVERED: GS 3:Committee

LEARNING:

For PRELIMS nothing much here except the aim of this committee .

For MAINS note key facts . This can be a mains question this year !

ISSUE:

Emergency Response Centres (ERCs) to handle major oil fires in the fastest way possible are yet to be set up in India, more than a decade after they were recommended by the MB Lal Committee.

Two firefighters died on June 9, 2020, while trying to control the blaze at the Baghjan 5 well .

The ERCs were supposed to be completed in 2014. But six years later, even after approval of the Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, the recommendation is still pending.

An ERC would take 3-4 years to be set up and any incident during the intervening period might cause huge losses.
The agency should be able to provide 24X7 emergency fire-fighting services, with advanced equipment.

MB LAL COMMITTEE KEY RECOMMENDATIONS :

The MB Lal committee was constituted following a fire incident in October 2009 at the IOCL terminal at Jaipur.

It had nearly 118 recommendations with regard to safety guidelines to be followed by oil companies at their installations.

MOST IMPORTANT ARE HERE :

DESCRIPTION OF THE INCIDENT
SCENE AFTER THE EXPLOSION
EVIDENCE AND DATA COLLECTION
INCIDENT MODELLING
FACILITIES
OBSERVATION AND ANALYSIS
REVIEW OF SAFETY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

IASbhai WINDUP:

Till ERCs are set up, oil marketing companies (OMCs) including Indian Oil Corp Ltd (IOCL), Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd and Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) should appoint an experienced agency on a temporary basis.
According to the ministry, at least 94 per cent of the recommendations made by the MB Lal committee have been implemented.

SUGGESTED READING : https://www.oisd.gov.in/m-b-lal-committee-report

SOURCES:THE HINDU | MB Lal Committee Recommendations | UPSC

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