Reactor blast: one more succumbs, kin protest
The death toll in the reactor blast at a bulk drug making unit in Sangareddy on Wednesday, went up to six. As the Sangareddy Government General Hospital (GGH) was awaiting the postmortem reports of the five victims on Thursday, Fire department officials pulled out another body from under the rubble.
GGH Superintendent G. Anil Kumar confirmed that there were no more blast victims treated there. Out of the 20 injured, 14 are currently receiving treatment at MNR Hospital in Sangareddy, while the remaining have been referred to private hospitals.
Yashoda Hospital, HiTec City, has three victims, one is at Care Hospital, Gachibowli, and another at Citizens Hospital, Nallagandla. Sangareddy DMHO Gayathri Devi said that one criticallyinjured victim at MNR will soon be transferred to a private hospital in Hyderabad.
Meanwhile, the reactor blast site looked like a war zone with crumbled walls and glass shards lying everywhere. The explosion at SB Organics Ltd in Hathnoora, around 52 km from Hyderabad, was felt in a radius of about one kilometre from the site, said witnesses.
The impact was such that all the glass panels from the windows of the second unit in a threestorey building were shattered. “As per our report, there were about 35 employees inside at the time of mishap. About eight to nine of them were in Unit 1,” said Regional Fire Officer of Sangareddy Srinivas.
Family members of victims and the injured gathered at the plant and staged a protest demanding compensation. A chemist working at the plant, who too protested, said that they have not received any word from the management. “All their phones have been switched off. We have been working here for the last 20 years and this is how they treat us? The families have already spent lakhs in treatment. An update about any compensation has not been given yet. We are worried about the families of the deceased from other States too. They should arrange and ensure that the bodies reach their hometown safely,” he said.
BRS leader Harish Rao reached there after visiting the families at a private hospital. He interacted with them and demanded that the government must provide ₹50 lakh each to the family of the deceased and ₹25 lakh each to the kin of the injured. “Employees claim that an outdated reactor is the cause of explosion,” he said.
Patancheru police booked a case against the management under Section 304A (causing death by negligence) of the IPC.