Staging a dharna before the Dhenkanal Collectorate on Monday, the Dhenkanal Nagarik Manch condemned the State Government as well as the State Pollution Control Board (SPCB) for paying a deaf ear to all the illegal activities of the Bhushan Steel limited (BSl) plant since its inception in 2004.
Eminent social activist Prasant Kumar Mishra alleged that BSl cheated many local land losers by purchasing their lands at throwaway prices. Even though the plant had been polluting the air and water of the nearby villages and was using underground water illegally through deep bore wells, the Government had been sitting silent.
Significantly, the plant had been using the forest land and cremation grounds in the nearby villages without obtaining the prior permission of the competent authorities. Around 100 labourers were killed on Bhushan premises during last eight years, due to least regard of the BSl management for safety in the plant, Mishra said.
Presiding over the meeting, Dr Bhabani Shankar Mishra said that BSl dared to commission the Blast Furnace -II on November 13, without prior permission of the Factories and Boilers and the SPCB, because it was confident that the heads of the State were in its pocket.
Speaking on the occasion, social activist Sisir Satpathy said the State Government, instead of concentrating on promotion of agriculture, allegedly had transferred the fertile agricultural lands to industrial houses in order to kill the farmers and industrial labourers.
Prof Ashok Sharan said apart from the BSl, most of the factories in the State are running violating the labour Act and SPCB guidelines. He flayed the helplessness of the administration, saying that the BSl management did not allow the District Collector, SP and other top officials for long hours to enter the plant’s accident site just to cover up its lapses. It continued to keep the administration in dark regarding the number of workers present during the commissioning of the second blast furnace, he said.
Among others, trade union leader Ganeswar Biswal, social activists Sarat Tunga, Arjuna Sahu, Pankaj Nayak, Rajiv Kar, Kalyan Anand, Priyabrat Gadnayak and Khanjulfat Alli spoke. They submitted a memorandum to the President of India through the District Collector, demanding judicial and CBI probe into the mishap.
It may be noted that after five days, the BSl management submitted records to the labour Commissioner that out of 974workers engaged at the Blast Furnace-II site which were outsourced through 35 agencies, only the attendance of 816 workers was recorded through biometric system. 158 workers were engaged in a system of non-biometric attendance. Besides, the labour Commissioner was also appraised that out of 31 workers who sustained injury during the blast furnace II blast and fire, one Damodar Hansdah (32) of Mayurbhanj and another Saroj Dehury (23) of Angul were killed. Among rest 29, 13 were discharged after first aid and 16 were still under treatment.
Meanwhile, BJP general secretary Dharmendra Pradhan, former MP Rudra Narayan Pany and former State Minister Samir Dey, assured the party workers at Kamakhyanagar that charge sheets would be framed soon regarding the anti people activities of the State and Central Governments and also against the elected representatives.