Four contract workers were killed and three others sustained serious injuries when an explosion took place at the Open Cast Project-1 of Singareni Collieries Company limited (SCCL) of Ramagundam-3 division under Ramagiri police station limits on Tuesday.

The deceased have been identified as Bandari Prem Kumar (38) Godavarikhani, Billa Rajesh (42) and Anjaiah (41) from Kamanpur and S Ramesh (28) from Godavarikhani died on the spot and their bodies were mutilated in the powerful blast with bodies strewn apart and unrecognisable. Three other workers, Bandi Shankar (31) from Julapalli, K Venkatesh from Kamanpur and Bheemaiah hailing from Ratnapur sustained serious injuries and they were shifted to Singareni area hospital.  When the condition of Venkatesh turned serious, he was shifted to a corporate hospital in Karimnagar town.

Ramagundam Commissioner of Police V. Satyanarayana said that at around 10.30 am, the workers were drilling holes to fill it with slurry (gelatine) to explode them at around 3 pm for the removal of over-burden (OB) earth from the OCP.

Out of 80 holes, they had drilled 33 holes and filled with slurry and fixing with detonator when the mishap occured. As the slurry was having high explosive content, four persons who were very close to the holes died on the spot and three others sustained serious injuries.

The mishap is stated to be the major accident in the OCP-1 history in the Ramagundam coal belt region. The police have launched an investigation under the Explosives Substances Act and the IPC 304 sections. The police have seized all the detonators and sent for explosive analysis.

Peddapalli MP Venkatesh Netha, Ramagundam legislator Korukanti Chander, trade union leaders Kengerla Mallaiah (BMS) Janak Prasad (INTUC) and others visited the Singareni area hospital to console the bereaved family members and the injured workers.

Trade union leaders alleged that the management was responsible for the explosion as there was no supervision by the safety officer and others concerned while placing the explosive materials for taking up blasting of boulders to excavate the coal. They staged a dharna at the hospital demanding compensation of Rs 1 crore each to the bereaved family members and Rs 50 lakhs to the injured persons. They also demanded employment to a member of the bereaved family and demanded that the Directorate General of Mine Safety (DGMS) should conduct an open inquiry and punish the responsible persons by registering criminal cases.