A painful accident occurred on Saturday in Dhanbad district of Jharkhand, where a pile of slurry (wet coal waste) suddenly collapsed on the workers working at Munidih Washery operated by BCCL. At least four laborers died in this accident, while many others are still feared trapped under the debris. After the incident, there was an atmosphere of chaos in the entire area and rescue operations were started rapidly.
Identification of the dead
The deceased have been identified as Prem Bauri, Manik Bauri, Deepak Bauri and Narayan Yadav. It is being told that all of them were laborers in the unorganized sector and like everyday, they were at work that day also. At the time of the accident, the workers were doing the work of removing and loading the slurry, when suddenly due to loss of balance, a huge pile of slurry fell down. This incident did not even give the workers a chance to recover.
According to eyewitnesses, some workers somehow saved their lives by running away, but many people were directly hit by the debris. Jitendra Kumar, a laborer, told that they were working to extract material from the slurry heap, when suddenly the heap collapsed and fell on the workers present there. He said that the accident happened so suddenly that no one had a chance to recover.
What did Munidih outpost in-charge Manita Kumari say?
Giving information, Munidih outpost in-charge Manita Kumari said that till now four bodies have been recovered. He said that teams of local administration, BCCL and NDRF are together engaged in relief and rescue work. It is feared that some workers may still be trapped under the debris, hence the operation is continuing.
After the incident, a large number of police forces and relief teams have been deployed on the spot. With the help of JCB machines and other equipment, the work of removing debris is being done rapidly, so that the trapped workers can be taken out as soon as possible. However, the marshy and heavy nature of the slurry is posing a major challenge in rescue operations.
Questions raised on safety standards
This accident has once again raised questions regarding safety standards in mining areas. Due to lack of adequate security arrangements for unorganized labourers, such incidents keep coming to light. Local people have demanded from the administration that a thorough investigation should be conducted into the matter and strict action should be taken against the culprits, so that such a tragedy does not happen again in future.
At present, relief and rescue operations are going on and all eyes are on ensuring that other laborers trapped in the debris can be rescued safely.
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