Odisha govt asked to file status report on Bhushan mishap

The Orissa High Court today issued notice to the state government to file a status report on the November 13 accident at the Bhushan steel plant in Dhenkanal district.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice A K Goel and Justice A K Rath took up a PIL filed by the Nationalist Lawyers' Forum and asked the state government to file the status report on the accident at the Bhushan Steel Limited's plant in Meramundali within two weeks.
The state government has also been asked to file a counter-affidavit in the matter within four weeks.
It came a day after the high court issued notices to the state government on a PIL seeking closure of the plant, stating that it had come up illegally after acquiring land, violating the provisions of the Land Acquisition Act.

The petitioner Nishikant Mishra, in his capacity as the secretary of the Forum, had urged the high court to order an independent inquiry, preferably by the CBI, into last month's mishap.
Three workers were killed and several others injured in a fire, accompanied by an explosion, at the private steel plant.