More than 48 hours after the mishap at HPCL-Visakh Refinery on Friday, uncertainty continues over the number of deceased, even as one of the severely injured was airlifted to Mumbai for advanced treatment. While the family members of some workers and union leaders say at least 10 persons are missing, the management of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) maintains that eight persons died in the mishap and ruled out finding any bodies under the debris. Meanwhile, no more casualties were recorded on Saturday.
During his visit on Saturday, Union minister for petroleum and natural gas Veerappa Moily said 102 workers were on duty when the explosion occurred, but most of them were far away from the accident spot.
Officials later said there were 46 persons working at the cooling tower, and following the blast, 39 were admitted to hospital. They recovered the body of HPCL supervisor Ch Murali and six other workers from the debris till Saturday evening. Another person, Manojeet Pradhan, succumbed to injuries at a private hospital on Saturday.
HPCL officials clarified that they could not find any more bodies and ruled out the possibility of finding any more bodies from the site. On condition of anonymity, an official said all contract workers enter through the same entry point and it would take time before identifying the positioning of all of them in the entire plant.
Meanwhile, workers claim there were 56 persons near the cooling tower and 10 of them are still missing. Though they could not give more details about the missing persons, they alleged that the management is trying to misguide the public by suppressing facts and keeping the families of victims in the dark. A contract worker at the refinery told Express that some of the victims were from Odisha, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, and it would take some time before their family members learn about it and come to the refinery to search for them.
CPM district secretary Ch Narasinga Rao agrees with the workers. “Going by the attendance sheet of the corporation, 56 persons were at the spot. But only 46 were accounted for. We fear that the bodies of the remaining persons could be found in the debris. We demand that the management provide the details of missing persons after clearing the debris,” said Narasinga Rao.
Meanwhile, HPCL chairman and managing director S Roy Choudhury airdashed to Visakhapatnam and conducted a review meeting with officials on the incident. He visited the accident spot and also the injured at the hospital. He is learnt to have directed the officials to provide required medical attention to the injured.
One Venkata Rao was airlifted to Mumbai for advanced treatment and six other injured are also likely to be airlifted to Mumbai over the next 24 hours. The officials have handed over the bodies of HPCL supervisor Murali and three others to the bereaved families and efforts are on to identify the charred bodies of the other deceased.
Monday 26 August 2013
http://newindianexpress.com/states/andhra_pradesh/HPCL-fire-Workers-say-10-are-still-missing/2013/08/26/article1752277.ece
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