Bhushan Steel's killer blast furnace sealed

Three BSL officials held as casualty in Wednesday's mishap remains unclear

The state Directorate of Factories and Broilers has sealed the blast furnace number-2 of Bhushan Steel (BSL) plant at Meramundali in Dhenkanal district where a deadly fire accident yesterday had killed at least one worker and injured 19 others.

“The prohibition order has been issued for the blast furnace-2, which was under commissioning,” said Purna Chandra Das, director of Factories and Boilers.

On Wednesday, the deputy director of factories and boilers, Malay Kumar Pradhan, who visited the accident site, said that the company had not informed his department about commissioning of the blast furnace as required under the law.

Meanwhile, three top officials of BSL, including its chief operating officer (COO), who were arrested on charges of negligence in ensuring safety during the blast furnace commissioning that caused the accident, have been remanded to judicial custody.

A case has been registered on the basis of the report submitted by the Directorate of Factories and Boilers. Three officials namely Atulya Kumar Verma, chief operating officer, Naveen Tyagi, shift-in-charge and Meghpal Singh, president, steel-making, were arrested and will be produced before the court later today, said Dhenkanal SP, Manoranjan Mohanty. These three officials were detained by the police yesterday.

Though, officially, it is stated that one person was killed and 19 others were injured in the incident, doubts persist over the exact number of casualties with some workers present in the plant premises at the time explosion in blast furnace-2 hinting at higher death toll.  

The company authorities had, yesterday, informed that 120 workers were deployed in blast furnace-2 when the accident happened. But they were unable to provide the details of these workers fuelling speculation of higher casualty.   

The SP said, the exact number of casualties in the accident is still not known. “With the company authorities not submitting the details of the workers, we are trying to collect the information from other sources,” he said.

The district labour officer (DLO) and the local tehsildar have been asked to submit a detailed report within two days after receiving the detailed data from the plant authorities, said Rupa Roshan Sahu, district collector, Dhenkanal.

The mishap in the steel plant has heated up a war of words between the Opposition and the ruling party.

The opposition Congress accused the government of showing undue favour to BSL as it has not taken any exemplary action against the company despite repeated accidents in the steel unit claiming more than 100 lives since its inception. The matter should be investigated, said Jayadev Jena, PCC president.

BJP demanded that the steel plant be sealed immediately. However, the government countered the allegations. “Adequate action has been taking and there is no question of leniency,” said Bijayshree Routray, state minister for forest, environment and labour. The company officials said, the presence of water in the slag pipe of the newly installed Blast Furnace had triggered the fire accident.

“The blast occurred due to the presence of water in the slag pipe. It is a usual phenomenon. We were commissioning the blast furnace with the help of foreign professionals,” Verma had said on Wednesday.