Another senior official of the Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) was placed under suspension on Thursday in connection with the gas mishap that claimed four lives at the plant besides leaving six other workers injured on Wednesday.
Assistant Manager (Safety) Smruti Ranjan Sahu was suspended by the RSP CEO for his alleged negligence of duties. Earlier, the authorities had suspended two Deputy General Manager (DGM)-rank officials Gopabandhu Barik of EMD Department and Nabendu Das of CCD Mechanical Department over the mishap.
It may be noted that in many occasions the RSP management is outsourcing perennial jobs to private parties violating the National Joint Committee for Steels (NJCS) agreement.
The contractors’ without imparting any safety training and providing safety equipments are engaging the workers at a nominal wage ignoring the safety protocol standard operating procedures(SOPs).
Ultimately, that is leading to mishaps. Besides this mishap, earlier certain major accidents have been reported in 2012, 2015 and 2017 in the plant. So, once again, question is raised on the integrity of the Government officials, who are to supposed look into the proper implementation of Factory Act in the RSP.
The plant management is allowing the contractors to deploy the workers in shutdown units without following safety protocols like deployment of ambulance, providing fire safety and other equipments.
It is also alleged that though a public sector unit should emphasise more on welfare of people, the RSP with an intention to earn more profits has been engaging contract workers in permanent jobs.