Toll mounts to 11; Kiran, Naidu, Beni Prasad visit site
Fear gripped Visakhapatnam Steel Plant on Thursday as the toll in the Wednesday's oxygen house blast in the steel melt shop-II went up to 11 with two employees succumbing to burns.
After visiting the blast site, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy and Union Steel Minister Beni Prasad Verma announced a high-level probe into the accident and ex-gratia payment of Rs.20 lakh each to families of permanent employees of VSP and Rs.10 lakh to those of contract workers killed in the accident. The ex-gratia will be paid in addition to other benefits.
Mr. Verma said the three-member team, to be headed by S.R. Jain, the former chairman of SAIL, would be asked to submit its report in a month. VSP Chairman-cum-Managing Director A.P. Choudhary, who reached the United States on a personal visit, is rushing back to the city.
Meanwhile, VSP General Manager (Projects) D.S. Kalsi and Assistant GM (SMS) M.B.R.S. Sarma were rushed to Mumbai in an air ambulance for specialised medicare. Two more persons — L. Satyanarayana, an employee of VSP and Kuntal Nayak, a contract worker of Bluestar, succumbed to the burns while undergoing treatment.
The deceased included five employees of VSP. The list of deceased is as follows: L. Srihari, Deputy General Manager (construction) and P.V. Karunakar, DGM (instrumentation), Atul, management trainee, A.V. Ravi Chand, senior manager and L. Satyanarayana, foreman (all VSP employees); David, Ramesh Dutta, Sanjay Das, Srinivasa Raju, Tarunjit Singh and K. Nayak (all contract workers).
Judicial probe
Telugu Desam president N. Chandrababu Naidu, who was among several Opposition leaders who visited VSP, demanded a judicial probe into accidents that had occurred during the past one-and-a-half years and sought a compensation of Rs.1 crore to the families of those who died in accidents.
Among the political leaders who made a beeline to the VSP included CPI (M) State secretary B.V. Raghavulu, CPI State secretary K. Narayana, Union Minister of State for HRD D. Purandeswari, BJP leader Bandaru Dattatreya and others and State Ministers Ganta Srinivasa Rao, P. Balaraju and Leader of Opposition in AP Legislative Council Dadi Virabhadra Rao.
Majority of steel employees are habituated for negligence on their
duties. whether any body accepts or not maximum employees of VSP leave
the factory after morning punching. uninon activities have reached
peak in the plant that no construction company or contractor can
execute their contracts in professional manner. if at all any
construction company or contractor has to consult union even for
hiring a jeep or employing a office boy.
These employees who brought orissa and bihar cuulture to vizag steel
must be booked immediately bring total discipline in the plant as VSP
is going for 42000cr expansion and its timely completion is dependent
on construction companies and safety
Fear in the air...well not so uncommon.This is a tragedy that will forever haunt the Vizag Steel Plant..so many precious a life was sniffed out on 13th June.It is time for an overhaul of this industry in Vizag...to make sure VSKP Steel Plant is again safe,after all it the steel industry is the lifeline of many Indians!!
Please note the explotion didn't happen in the Oxygen plant but oxygen control unit near Steel Melting Shop-II. Oxygen Plant which generates oxygen for the plant is far from the actual explotion.
A really bad accident.the omensare bad for the nation with a no good rule at the centre and still worse in most states and RAIN STILL PLAYING TRUANT.Our leaders were enjoying the marriage function of another leaders kin
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