16 INJURED BROUGHT TO NEW DELHI

NEWDELHI: Ten of the 100 injured in the NTPC explosion were admitted to the burns intensive care unit of Safdarjung hospital in New Delhi, while six more were brought to AIIMS on Friday evening.

They were flown to the Capital on Thursday night to ensure better facilities were provided to them. Minister of state for health Anupriya Patel met the families of the victims at Safdarjung late on Thursday night and assured them the “best possible” care. Three of the nine men have suffered 80% burns while one has 90% burns. accident. We rushed to the site on our own, taking cognizance of media reports,” he said.

Under the Indian Boiler Act, 1923, a thermal plant or factory is supposed to compulsorily inform the boiler inspector in writing within 24 hours of an accident occurring due to a boiler or a steam pipe, a provision that was given the go-by in this case.

Additional chief secretary, labour, RK Tiwari said the state government would take suitable action in the matter after it received the report from the field.

On Thursday, NTPC’S preliminary probe revealed that the unit in question had a problem in ash evacuation and officers were trying to fix it. It was because of this issue that the power generation at the plant was reduced to 190 MW against its capacity of 400 MW.

Meanwhile, Rajesh Prajapati, the nodal officer for the magisterial probe, said the statements of the eyewitnesses have been sought in the next two weeks.

NTPC chairman and managing director Gurdeep Singh said it would take three-six months to get the unit back on track.