A day after a major fire broke out at the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, Visakha Steel Workers' Union (VSWU), the recognised union, staged a dharna on Monday demanding a high-level probe into frequent accidents.
Blaming negligence on the part of the management for recurring accidents, the union leaders said unlike other probe committees, the findings of probe to be conducted into Sunday's fire in raw material handling plant should be made public.
The dharna was staged at the administrative building of VSP. The response to the dharna was impressive as hundreds of workers participated in the dharna.
“There should be a white paper on the causes that led to the accident,” VSWU president D. Adinarayana said. Union general secretary N. Rama Rao and deputy general secretary V. Dhanaraju along with others raised slogans threatening to launch agitation if there was no action against the officials responsible for the accident.
The union leaders said there was no monitoring over the capital repairs undertaken by private contractors.
Only due to negligence, fire accidents were recurring from welding material left behind by the contractors, they alleged.
Extensive damage
The union leaders, who met the top management earlier, told emphatically that Sunday's accident was caused due to a welding particle left by the contractor at 10.30 p.m. on Saturday. The accident occurred at 1.30 a.m. causing extensive damage to the conveyers and structures such as junction box and apparel feeders.
