ROURKELA: Another mishap inside the Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) of SAIL claimed the life of a young contract worker on Monday morning.
Sources said the worker Ganasira Mundary (22) was trapped dead in the running slag disposal belt of the Blast Furnace (BF)-1.
Mundary was working for contract firm TD Construction and was found stuck in the slag disposal belt of BF-1 at about 8.15 am and was rushed to the Occupational Health Service Centre of RSP. He was later shifted to the RSP-run Ispat General Hospital where he was declared brought dead.
The RSP management was quick to form a high-level committee for inquiry. RSP Director In-Charge Atanu Bhowmick expressed deep anguish over the untimely demise of the contract worker and assured of all possible help to the bereaved family.
Sources informed the mishap occurred when slag particles got jammed in the running conveyer belt and Mundary was clearing the slag for smooth flow.
They said the belt was running at the waist height of Mundari and somehow he was pulled by the running belt leading to his death.
President of the BMS-affiliated Rourkela Ispat Karkhana Karmachari Sangh (RIKKS) HS Bal attributed the mishap to lack of safety adherence at the worksite, adding there was no safety fencing along the running belt.
He said the BF-1 department’s claims that three other workers were at the site seem questionable as had there been any other present at the spot the victim would not have died. He reiterated strict safety adherence inside RSP.
Earlier, on January 30 a contract worker Amar Panda (42) had died and another contract worker escaped with minor injury after a heavy iron safety seal of a gas tank got dislocated to trap Panda dead. They were engaged in a housekeeping job at the Captive Power Plant (CPP) -1.
On January 06, 2021, four contractor workers died of exposure to poisonous gas. They were engaged in a maintenance job at the Site A of the Coal Chemical Department when they got exposed to entrapped CO gas while opening the flange bolts of the CO gas pipeline attached to the Gas Mixing Tank.
The fatal mishap had led to the suspension of three RSP executives and a series of inquiries by SAIL and state government and the intervention of the National Green Tribunal.