Kurnool quarry blast victims’ families in Odisha yet to come to terms with tragedy

BERHAMPUR: A pal of gloom descended on BT Nuagaon and Jharedi Radhagobindapur villages under Rambha police limits in Ganjam district following the death of three villagers in a blast at a stone quarry in Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh.

Six persons, five from BT Nuagaon and one from nearby Jharedi Radhagobindapur under Rambha police limits, had left for Hatti Belagal village under Aluru Mandal of Kurnool district to work in a stone quarry. However, a blast in the quarry on Friday night, which killed 11 persons including three from Ganjam district, changed everything.

As the news reached here, Ganjam District and Sessions Judge Bibhu Prasad Routroy, who is also chairman of District Legal Services Authority (DLSA), asked DLSA secretary Bijay Kumar Dash to direct the district administration to send a team of officials of Labour department to take stock of the situation and look after the treatment of the injured.

The DLSA also ordered the officials to meet the families of the six labourers from Rambha. Meanwhile the list of the deceased and the injured in the blast reached DLSA. According to the list, Bhima Nahak (30) of Jharedi Radhagobindapur, Duryadhan Nahak (42) and Manoranjan Nahak (22) of BT Nuagaon were killed in the blast. Rajendra Nahak (40), Ramchandra Nahak (50) and Pandab Lenka (40) sustained critical injuries.

As per the direction of DLSA, the district administration paid Rs 10,000 each to the next of the kin of the deceased and Rs 5,000 to the families of the injured labourers. Apart from Government officials, Chhatrapur MLA Priyanshu Pradhan along with his supporters visited the villages and consoled the families.

Laxmi Charan Nahak, who lost his 22-year-old son Manoranjan in the blast, is yet to come to terms with the tragedy. Similar is the plight of Duryadhan Nahak’s family. Duryadhan was the sole bread winner of the family. Now he is survived by his widowed mother, wife Premlata, an 11-year-old daughter and a son aged around eight years. The villagers are peeved over the apathy of the State Government which is yet to announce compensation for the deceased. The lack of initiative by the Ganjam district administration to bring back the dead bodies has made matters worse.

The police have launched a manhunt to nab the contractor who had sent the villagers to Kurnool to work in the stone quarry. Meanwhile, a team of District Labour Office reached Kurnool on Sunday evening.