Dhenkanal police arrested three high officials of the Bhushan Steel in the district, including COO AK Barma, shift-in-charge N Tyagi and operating head Meghpal Singh for negligence that resulted in a blast during commissioning of Blast Furnace-2 on Wednesday last, killing one and injuring many. The three officials were forwarded to a local court, but as their bail pleas were rejected, they were sent to Hindol Sub Jail.
The intensity of the blast was so strong that even till date the exact number of death and injury cases has not been known as several persons are feared trapped at the accident site. Meanwhile, the administration has sealed the Blast Furnace-2. Factory & Boiler Director PC Das conducted a detailed investigation and held the management of the steel mill entirely responsible for the incident.
A high-level committee headed by Factory & Boiler deputy director Dr NK Pradhan also submitted an interim report to the administration on the incident. Dr Pradhan reported that adequate precaution had not been taken at the time of commissioning of the blast furnace. Dhenkanal Collector Ruparoshan Sahu told that the company failed to submit a list of workers engaged at the time of accident. She also admitted that the labour department had miserably failed to monitor the work force at the Bhushan Steel.