Haldia (West Bengal)
Two days back, at around 2:50 pm on December 21, it was just another lunch break for 25-year-old Mohan Mahato, who after working for almost six hours at Haldia’s Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) refinery approached the nearby eatery to eat daal bhaat. Instead, what stopped him midway was the bang of a loud blast which was followed by a deafening silence.
Moments later, Mahato, perplexed and benumbed by the explosion, looked back towards the refinery to find his injured fellow workers running out of the refinery premises in great disarray.
“I was almost 100 metres away from the spot where the explosion occurred. I saw the labourers jumping from the raised platform where they worked… body parts were scattered here and there. It was awful and cannot be described in words,” Mahato narrated to Gaon Connection. He works at the refinery as a contractual labourer and hails from Jharkhand.
At least three migrant workers have died in the blast at the IOC oil refinery while 44 others are being treated for their injuries.
The three deceased have been identified as Pargat Singh (39), Sarabjit Singh (29) — both from Punjab while Shamshad Ali (35) was a migrant worker from Bihar.
The refinery is located at industrial city Haldia in the East Medinipur district of West Bengal, which is around 120 kilometres from the state capital Kolkata.
It is learnt that the explosion occurred at the motor spirit quality (MSQ) unit during ‘shutdown related works’ in the refinery. The unit was shut down on December 1 for maintenance and was resuming operations when the explosion took place on December 21.
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“As many as 100 workers were in the MSQ when the incident happened and most of them were contractual workers from the states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Punjab Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh that had come for the maintenance work and were supposed to work here for around 45 days,” Mohan Mahato told Gaon Connection.
These contractual labourers are paid Rs 450-Rs 500 per day with no statutory benefits.
Families clueless about the condition of injured workers
Reboti Bagdhara, forty-year-old wife of an injured worker, is in deep shock ever since she got to know about the accident in the refinery. She has fallen unconscious several times ever since she came to know that her husband has sustained burn injuries in the explosion.
Her husband, Manas Dhara (45), a resident of Brajalal Chak village of Haldia was working with scores of other labourers inside the refinery when an explosion occurred. All she knows is that the injured have been rushed to several private hospitals in Kolkata where the condition of 16 of them is stated to be critical.
Manas is the sole breadwinner of the family that comprises his wife, his minor daughter, a sister and old parents.
“I was busy with my household chores when suddenly the phone rang around four in the evening. A worker in the refinery informed me that an explosion had left my husband severely injured and he was being shifted to Kolkata. The caller disconnected the phone even before I could ask anything,” she told Gaon Connection before falling unconscious.
‘Actual death toll much higher’
Workers who witnessed the blast and their injured companions at the site told Gaon Connection that the actual death toll is much higher than what is being officially informed. As many as 16 workers have been learnt to be in a critical condition.
“We suspect that at least 15-20 people have died from the explosion as several labourers were working when the incident occurred,” said Sadhu Saran Yadav, a 48-year-old contractual labourer from Bihar. “We saw ten cars being rushed out of the refinery that were completely packed with the injured even before the ambulances could arrive. The officials are hiding the real figures,” he alleged.
Demand for compensation, safety measures questioned
Protesting workers suspended work at the refinery and demanded immediate compensation to the families of the deceased workers as well as to those injured.
“We demand an immediate compensation of ten lakh rupees (Rs 1,000,000) to those severely injured and twenty five lakh rupees (Rs 2,500,000) for the families of the dead,” SK Hanif, leader of the Indian National Trinamool Trade Union Congress told Gaon Connection.
SK. Nur Hussain, another labour leader, informed that there were no adequate fire fighting arrangements and that the fire engines also reached late which aggravated the situation and led to more casualties.
“It took time to bring the massive fire under control and start the rescue work. The management should ensure the presence of fire engines and ambulances at such hazardous sites to ensure prompt action. But their absence is simply callousness on the part of the officials,” he said.
Official response to the accident so far
It is learnt that yesterday, on December 22, a high-level Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) team from Delhi arrived from New Delhi to probe the incident. Sources informed Gaon Connection that prima facie it appears that a leak in highly inflammable naptha gas pipeline may have led to the explosion and the blaze.
Also, a contingent led by state irrigation and waterways minister Somen Mahapatra and Trinamool trade union leader Tapas Maity went to the IOC’s corporate office in Haldia and held a meeting with its officials yesterday on compensation and safety measures.
When contacted, the senior refinery officials refused to speak to the media persons and didn’t allow their entry inside the refinery premises. The management is yet to declare any compensation for the dead and the injured.
