BHUBANESWAR: In a tragic incident, three workers reportedly died of asphyxiation inside a water sump at an under-construction house in Pandara on Friday.The deceased are Sumiran Munyan, Bhrighuram Mandal and Basudev Mandal, all from East Midnapore district of West Bengal. Police said the workers had gone inside the sump to remove centering materials and they might have died due to lack of oxygen in the pit.
Sources said seven labourers from West Bengal were working at the under-construction building for the last over 20 days. At around 1 pm on the day, co-workers could not find the trio at the construction site and started searching for them. One of them found a pair of shoes near the sump and suspecting that the trio might be trapped in the sump, alerted some labourers working in a nearby building. However, before the labourers could rescue them, they had already died.
“Sumiran and Bhrighuram had first entered the sump to remove centering materials. When they did not come out, the cook, Basudev, possibly went inside to rescue them,” said co-worker Prashant Patra from East Midnapore. Two labourers then went inside the sump and recovered the three bodies. Later, police reached the spot and took the bodies to hospital for postmortem.“Initial investigation suggests that the three persons died of asphyxiation. However, the exact reason behind the deaths can be ascertained after receiving the autopsy reports,” said Mancheswar IIC Jatindra Nath Sethy.
Chief Fire Officer Sukanta Sethi said the workers died as they were working inside the sump without safety gears. The incident took place due to lack of awareness among the workers, he added.The owner of the under-construction house, Srikant Mohanty of Angul district, does not stay here and has awarded the construction work of the building to a contractor, said sources. An unnatural case has been registered and further investigation is on.Meanwhile, Labour Minister Sushant Singh has directed District Labour Commissioner to investigate the matter and submit a report.