Steel major Bokaro Steel Plant (BSL) witnessed two separate incidents in which a contract worker died and another got seriously injured.

The incident occurred seven days after the director in charge of BSL,

Amarendu Prakash, had asked officials and employees to ensure 100 per cent safety inside the plant. Following the incident, trade union leaders raised concerns over safety violations at the BSL plant.

Two separate inquiry committees have been set up by the BSL management to ascertain the cause behind the incidents. Meanwhile, Mecon Ltd and the inspectorate of factories of the Jharkhand government have also begun an investigation.

While working, Nageshwar Patel probably slipped and fell down in the cellar located around minus 3m and succumbed to head injuries.
The first incident occurred in Coke Oven Battery-8 at about 12.40 pm when 51-year-old Patel, a contract worker, died in the cellar.

He was employed by NP Contruction of M/S Mecon Ltd. Chief of communication, BSL, Manikant Dhan said: “Patel was engaged in material shifting work as part of the job of shifting of pipeline when the incident occurred."

Dhan added: “The job has been taken up by Mecon Ltd from BSL for construction of Coke Oven Battery-8.”

Bokaro Steel Plant (BSL) Sourced by Correspondent

“We will visit the spot where the incident occurred inside the BSL plant on Wednesday,” said inspector of factories Dhirendera Singh Munda.

Another incident occurred around 2pm in steel melting Shop-2 inside the plant. Dilip Manjhi, 33, a contract worker of M/s Janta Construction, got injured when the transverse stand of mixer crane-1 got unbalanced while being lifted.

Dhan said: “Manjhi was immediately rushed to Bokaro General Hospital where he is undergoing treatment for his injuries. An inquiry committee also set up by BSL will be investigating the cause of this accident."

General secretary of Jai Jharkhand Majdoor Samaj (JJMS), the trade union of JMM, B.K. Chaudhary said: “There is sheer negligence of safety inside the BSL plant. The department heads remain ignorant about the safety issues.

Contract labourers are under pressure as workload is large and the manpower is less. Unskilled labourers are also adding to the rise in accidents.”