ROURKELA: The Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) management suspended two DGM ranked officers and announced a spate of relief measures after four contract workers were killed following toxic gas leakage at the Coal Chemical Department (CCD) where they were engaged in maintenance operations on Wednesday morning.
DGM of Coal Chemical Department N Das and DGM of Energy Management Department G Barik were placed under suspension for dereliction of duty. The RSP also assured to provide a job to each family of the deceased. Besides, the agency that had hired the services of the four has been directed to pay Rs 2.5 lakh ex-gratia to each of their kin.
Earlier on the day, four contract workers identified as Ganesh Chandra Paila (59), Abhimanyu Sahu (33), Rabindra Sahu (59) and Brahmananda Panda (51) perished after being exposed to poisonous gas. They were admitted to the intensive care unit of Ispat General Hospital (IGH).
RSP management sources informed that the workers were engaged by maintenance contractor firm Star Construction and added that at about 9 am, all four were taken critically ill. They were evacuated, given first-aid inside the RSP and admitted to the RSP-run IGH for intensive care. Four more are undergoing treatment. The exact reason and circumstances of the gas leak is yet to be known.
