Muzaffarpur (Bihar)
For 35-year-old Sandeep Kumar, December 26 was supposed to be just another hectic day at work when he entered the factory premises of Anshul Snacks and Beverages Private Limited which is situated on the outskirts of the Muzaffarpur city in Bihar. Instead, almost two hours after attending to his assigned duty as the boiler operator, an explosion blew him into pieces.
The remains of his body were handed over to his family in a bag.
Kumar was the breadwinner for his family and his death has had a depressing effect on the lives of his family members — his wife with learning disability, an eight-year-old son, a five-year-old daughter and a sixty-year-old mother.
“His wife, 30-year-old Rani Devi hasn’t been able to comprehend that her husband is no more and continues to wait for him to return from the factory. Kumar’s mother, who understands that she would never see her son again, is in a deep state of shock,” Sangeeta Devi, Sandeep’s sister – who also works at the factory – told Gaon Connection.
Akin to Kumar’s tragic death, six other workers lost their lives in the accident while as many as seven others sustained critical injuries. However, workers from the factory allege that the actual death count is higher than the official figure and the fault in one of the boilers was carelessly ignored for months which led to the blast.
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Krishna Mohan Jha, a 35-year-old worker at the noodle-making factory in Muzaffarpur’s Bela industrial area told Gaon Connection that at least 17 bodies were retrieved from the debris moments after the explosion.
“I was luckily on leave that day. The explosion was so loud that it was heard as far as five kilometers away. We rushed to the factory to see what had happened. The factory was unrecognisable. Everything was covered in dust and smoke. We saw 17 bodies being taken out from the rubble,” Jha, who works at the factory’s spices mixing section, told Gaon Connection.
“We had informed the factory management about a fault in some of the parts of the boiler control room in June itself. It’s been six months since then. The fault was overlooked and poor workers have paid the cost of management’s neglect,” he added.
Reacting to the incident, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Nand Ji Dubey told Gaon Connection that the factory owner Vikash Modi and six others have been booked for negligence.
“At around 9:30 am, we heard the explosion and quickly rushed to the site. We have registered an FIR (first information report) against accused factory owner Vikash Modi along with six others who were a part of the factory management,” Dubey said
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‘Harsh working conditions, no employment benefits’
It is learnt that the factory is a source of livelihood for the families of about a thousand workers.
“There are about a thousand workers employed by the factory. About 600 are men while 400 are women. The workers here work on two 12 hours shifts — morning shift is from 7 am to 7 pm and night shift is from 7 pm to 7 am. All workers are employed on contract basis and there are no employment benefits except for a daily wage of two hundred to two fifty rupees (Rs 200-Rs 250),” a worker told Gaon Connection on the condition of anonymity.
The worker told Gaon Connection that apart from eight workers who were present in the boiler room, about 30 migrant workers who lived in the staff quarter room inside the factory promises were also present in the room when the boiler exploded.
“The main supervisor of the factory named Digvijay escaped after the blast and is still on the run,” he added.
The factory has been operating in Muzaffarpur since 2018. Its products which include snacks and noodles are supplied across Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Odisha.
Official response so far
Bihar’s State Minister for Revenue and Land Reform Ram Surat Rai visited the factory on the day of the explosion and assured the workers of an in-depth probe
“A high-level inquiry will be conducted on the incident. The factory rules were violated as it was operating on Sunday even though factories are closed on that day. Strict action will be taken against those found guilty,” the minister told the workers.
Also on the same day, the Union government announced an ex-gratia payment of Rs 200,000 from the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund to the next of kin of the deceased. Also, the injured would be given Rs 50,000 each.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has announced an additional compensation of Rs 400,000 for the deceased workers’ families.
