Jajpur/Chadheidhara: Three labourers sustained critical injuries while they were preparing to blast explosives at an illegal stone quarry on Rahadpur hill to extract stones under Dharmasala tehsil in Jajpur district Saturday.
The injured labourers were identified as Santosh Sethy (44), Jeli Singh (38) and Susant Sethy (40) of Remunaghati village under Nilagiri police limits in Balasore district.
The quarry owner Ashis Nayak, however, tried to play down the incident by terming the injuries as a fall-out of bear attack.
The injured labourers were first rushed to the Barchana community health centre where doctors, on examining their health conditions, recommended shifting them to them to SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack.
While the labourers were about to activate the explosives, some rocks suspended at a 15-feet distance on the hill caved in on them and rendered them critical.
Notably, 11 labourers have been crushed to death or died due to blasts during the last one year in different illegal stone quarries in Jajpur district. However, the government is yet to act tough against such stone quarries.
Observers claimed that the labourers from Nilagiri in Balasore are making a beeline to the stone quarries in Jajpur district in search of work after the National Green Tribunal imposed a ban on the operation of illegal stone quarries in Nilagiri block.
The green body imposed the restrictions following a case filed before it in 2015. However, the government’s restrictions in stone quarries under Dharmsala tehsil have turned into a farce, as labourers are compelled to work in hazardous conditions endangering their lives.
PNN