Six workers lost their lives and five others were seriously injured in a massive blast at a steel plant in Chhattisgarh. The tragic incident occurred on Thursday morning when a dust settling chamber burst. All the laborers who lost their lives were residents of Gaya district of Bihar.
Tragic accident happened in Balodabazar-Bhatapara
This incident took place at around 10 am on Thursday morning at the Real Steel Plant located in Bakularhi village of Nipania tehsil of Balodabazar-Bhatapara district. According to the information, this accident occurred due to the bursting of the dust settling chamber, due to which the workers were badly burnt due to hot ash and dust.
laborers who lost their lives and were injured
In this accident, Shravan Kumar, Rajdev Kumar, Jitendra Bhuiyan, Badri Bhuiyan, Vinay Bhuiyan and Sunder Bhuiyan, residents of Dumariya police station area of Gaya district of Bihar, died. At the same time, five other workers were seriously burnt. These include Kalpu Bhuiyan and Ramu Bhuiyan of Gaya district of Bihar and Shabir Ansari, Mumtaz Ansari and Sharafat Ansari of Meral police station in Garhwa district of Jharkhand. All the injured have been admitted to the Burn and Trauma Research Center in Bilaspur, where they are undergoing treatment. The injured suffered burn injuries ranging from 10 to 40 percent.
Administration and company action
As soon as information about the incident was received, senior officials of the police administration including Collector Deepak Soni and SP Bhavana Gupta reached the plant. He supervised the relief and rescue operations and informed that the rescue operation has been completed and the dead have been identified. The collector told that the temperature of the dust settling chamber is very high. The administration has instructed the HR and Labor departments of the company to give appropriate compensation to the families of the deceased and the injured. The company management has also assured to bear the entire expense of the treatment of the injured. Chhattisgarh Health Minister Shyam Bihari Jaiswal, after discussing with the Collector, has given instructions to seriously investigate the entire matter and ensure action against the culprits.
Questions on safety standards
Local people and workers have accused the plant management of ignoring safety standards. Workers Joginder Ram and Ram Swaroop present in the plant at the time of the incident told that cleaning work was going on near the kiln. Suddenly smoke started rising and within a few moments hot ash started falling. A total of about 500 workers are employed in the plant, out of which 400 are permanent and 100 are contract workers.
