One dead, 9 injured in furnace blast

One dead, 9 injured in furnace blast
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Highlights

One person died and nine others suffered burns in the Alloy furnace blast occurred during the night shift on Saturday at Anjaneya Alloys Limited, located in Special Economic Zone at Atchutapuram in the district.

Explosion occurs at an alloy factory at Atchutapuram in Visakha district

Visakhapatnam: One person died and nine others suffered burns in the Alloy furnace blast occurred during the night shift on Saturday at Anjaneya Alloys Limited, located in Special Economic Zone at Atchutapuram in the district.

The mishap occurred due to leakage of water pipe erected on the top of the furnace which works at a high temperature of 1,500 centigrade. Though the workers of C-shift informed the management that it was not safe to run the furnace when the water pipe was leaking, they were forced to work. All the 10 injured were rushed to the local corporate hospital. Shift supervisor Biswas, 42, was declared as brought dead by the doctors.

The injured are D Venkateswara Rao, 45, K Lakshmana Rao, 40, K Sathi Babu, 44, Madhusudhan Maha, 38, R Chakravarthy, 32, Sanjay Roy, 31, B Veeranna, 30, U Ramesh, 22 and R Arun Kumar, 23. The condition of Arun Kumar was stated to be critical as he suffered 90 per cent burns. Two more workers Lakshmana Rao and Chakravarthy sustained 50 per cent burns.

Meanwhile, HRD Minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao, Anakapalli MP Avanthi Srinivasa Rao and MLA Panchakarla Ramesh Babu visited the hospital and enquired about the condition of the injured. Later, the Minister expressed shock over the series of industrial mishaps at the time when many more industries were coming up. He said Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu was also very particular about safety of working class. “A safety audit in every industry is mandatory for every three months and already asked the Collector N Yuva Raj to conduct an inquiry into the mishap to initiate stringent action against the management, if it found guilty,” he added. Ramesh Babu promised that all necessary steps for the safety of the workers in industries.

State Vice President of CITU Ch Narasing Rao, accompanied by CPI-M district president K Lokanadham, visited the hospital and spoke to the family members of the victims. Later, Narasing Rao found fault with the management in asking the workers in C-shift to go ahead with the work despite being alerted of leakage in the pipe. He alleged that there was no safety committees in any industry to hold safety audit and the management would have shut down the furnace soon after being alerted by workers to avert the mishap. The management was solely responsible for the incident and demanded an ex gratia of Rs 20 lakh to the kin of the deceased and a good medicare to the injured. He further demanded that the State and Central governments take necessary steps ensure industrial safety. District secretary of CPI-M Lokanadham also held the management of Anjaneya Alloy Limited responsible for the blast and said that earlier also a worker was killed on the spot when he was hit by a heavy crane in the same company. He demanded severe action against the management.

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