15 labourers injured in Hisar oil mill explosion, six critical
Factory owners booked for flouting safety norms; work at the unit started on Saturday after six months
ROHTAK : : At least 15 labourers were injured on Sunday after an explosion in a petroleum tank at an oil mill factory in Hisar district’s Uklana block.
The injured were rushed to two private hospitals in Hisar, the district headquarters, where six were said to be critical after having suffered over 85% burn injuries. Police said the incident took place around 3am at Ashish Garg Oil Extraction Factory near Surewala Chowk. It took seven fire tenders nearly four hours to douse the flames, which is said to have been caused due to leakage in a boiler.
The injured have been identified as Subhash, Ramdiya, Vaidyanath, Satish, Chandrabhuvan, Luvkush, Santosh, Sonu, Narender of Haryana; Ramesh, Suresh, Bhoj Raj of UP; Pankaj of Punjab and Rahul and Arjunshah of Bihar.
The police have registered a case against the factory owners on the statement of Subhash, one of the injured workers.
Subhash, who has been working in the oil mill for the past 12 years, told the police that the factory had been lying dysfunctional for nearly six months due to technical glitches in machines, and had resumed work on Saturday only.
He said the workers had several times informed the owners regarding the technical glitches in machines. “They paid no heed to our complaints. They did not provide us any safety gears and resumed work in the mill on Saturday without bothering to resolve the issues the machines had,” Subhash said in his statement. “Due to a technical fault, oil started leaking and suddenly there was a huge blast. Some of factory workers who managed to escape called the ambulance and people gathered at the spot helped us in reaching hospital,” he said. Based on his statement, the police have booked factory owners, one of them named in the FIR as Krishna, under Sections 287, 336, 337, 338 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code.
Hisar superintendent of police (SP) Manisha Choudhary said they were taking expert opinion in finding the cause of the fire. Haryana cooperation minister Manish Grover visited the injured in hospitals and assured their kin the state government will bear the cost of their treatment.
The police have also found the factory violating labour laws by engaging minor workers in hazardous tasks.
A WORKER TOLD POLICE THEY HAD INFORMED THE OWNERS ABOUT THE GLITCHES IN MACHINES MANY TIMES BUT THEY PAID NO HEED