HYDERABAD: A day after the unfortunate death of two daily-wage labourers and one employee inside the manhole of Biochemical and Synthetic Products’ Sanathnagar unit, some workers have alleged that the company dumps its untreated effluents in the manhole.The company’s Chief Executive Officer K Rama Rao was arrested on Tuesday along with the firm’s purchase manager Jagadeesh Babu and Electrical Engineer Ashok Reddy. The firm’s Chairperson and Managing Director, HM Mathias (70) has also been booked, but not been arrested as she resides in Mumbai.
Alladi Ramarao (51) and his nephew Alladi Seetharam (35) were allegedly called to clear the blocked manhole. “This is not the first time that our company’s officials have hired daily wage labourers to clean the manholes,” said an employee on condition of anonymity. “Chemicals are regularly dumped in there.”
Around 3:30 pm on Monday, Ramarao entered the manhole and fell unconscious. As there was no response from him, his nephew also entered and fell unconscious. Later, S Narasimhalu (40) who works at the company as a welder was forced to go down the drain by the officials. He too fell unconscious. It was only after this that they contacted the fire department, who came for rescue operations. Ramarao and Seetharam had died by the time they reached the hospital. Narsimhulu is battling for life.
“Why was my husband sent into the manhole. He was not qualified to do the work,” said Narasimhalu’s wife S Pallavi, with their two children by her side. “The company management did not even inform me about the incident till 5 pm.” Meanwhile, officials of the pollution control board has taken water samples from the unit to check if untreated effluents were being dumped in the manhole as alleged by workers.
Factories department, for its part has said that it would send a show cause notice to the firm and file a case in the court. If convicted, they could face a penalty of `1 lakh, jail-term of two years or both.
An official from the department has already visited the facility to take stock of the situation. The arrested CEO and Purchase Manager have also signed a stamp paper at the Sanath Nagar police station promising `10 lakh financial aid to each of the dead persons’ families. The company has also promised to deposit `50,000 in fixed deposit accounts for Seetharam’s children. The family had demanded compensation of `20 lakh.