Explosion at Omfed plant leaves 4 hurt

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Bhubaneswar: Four contractual workers including three women sustained severe injuries after a blast ripped through a cooling unit of the OMFED plant at Chandrasekharpur here Saturday morning. The injured were identified as Sanatana Sahoo (32) of Kalarahanga village, Mina Behera (42) of housing board colony and Bina Patra (40) of Patia and Rajani Mohanty (40).
Around 1,000 bottles of flavored milk blew off during the cooling process at 8.30 am Saturday. Some workers, engaged in packaging of bottles, suffered injuries as they were standing near the machine. There are more than 100 workers present in the plant when the blast occurred. Sanatana Sahoo sustained 60 per cent burns while others got away with minor injuries. The injured were rushed to Capital Hospital. A special team of doctors was engaged in the treatment of Sanatana whose condition is still critical.
Enraged workers staged protests in front of the plant premises demanding safety and other basic amenities. Out of 500 plus staff in the plant, 315 are contract workers. They accused the authorities of ignoring their safety. The workers have no safety shoes, helmets or other safety equipment that put their lives in risk.
Theyhave apprised the authorities about their problems several times, but to no avail. Almost 90 per cent of contractual workers await their EPF money for three years. Contractor Thames Consultancy has not paid salaries of workers on time. Many lamented that they were still getting paid a paltry Rs184 per day and treated as unskilled workers despite performing the duty of a skilled labourer over 15 years. Whoever dared to complain against the consultancy farm faces termination. Notably, a worker died due to electrocution while performing his duty in 2006.The labourers said even though such incidents keep occurring in the plant regularly, the authorities are taking no steps towards the security of workers.
Meanwhile, protesting workers late Saturday evening ended their stir after the authorities assured them of immediate actions to sort out their problems including safety equipment and first aid box with medicines as per the Factory Act.