My instruction on Bhushan not carried out: Labour Minister

The Odisha minister for forest, environment, labour and employment, Bijayshree Routray today expressed his helplessness over taking action against Bhushan Steel Ltd (BSL), which is accused of repeatedly violating environment and safety norms leading to fatal accidents in its steel unit at Meramundali in Dhenkanal district.

The latest mishap during the commissioning of blast furnace no 2 of the plant on Wednesday had killed one worker and injured several others.

Asked by media persons, why his department is not taking action against the BSL authorities for frequent flouting of safety and environment norms by the company, Routray said, though he had instructed the department to take action against the company, it has not been carried out. "That has finally led to such mishaps", he added. As the scribes pursued with queries, how come his instructions are not being carried out when he happened to be the head of the department as minister, a visibly upset Routray retorted, "I am not the head of the department". In response to another query, what action has been taken against the officials who had not carried out his instruction, the minister said, "Please go and ask the chief minister".

Meanwhile, taking serious note of the casualties due to the explosion at the steel plant, the state government has instructed the labour commissioner to investigate into the incident.

Recurring mishaps at BSL's steel plant had raised questions on the safety measures taken up by the company.

"The labour commissioner has been sent to the Bhushan steel unit to probe into the incident and find out the number of labourers working at the plant on the day of the mishap", said Routray.

He said, the commissioner will also urge the company authorities to put in place the bio-metric system to mark the attendance of the labourers, engineers and officers.

The company officials, meanwhile, have requested the labour minister to resume operations at the already sealed blast furnace-2, where the accident occurred.