Khanna blast: Toll 9,unit last inspected in 2005

The death toll from Wednesday’s boiler blast at the unit of Sanjeev Agro Private Limited in Khanna rose to nine after two workers – Kanchan and Gurbachan – succumbed to their injuries at PGI on Friday. The blast has also revealed startling facts about government departments failure to perform regular checks on factory units in the state despite making tall claims of stricter check-ups post the collapse of the Shital Fibres factory.

SDM (Khanna) Purshotam Singh Sodhi,who is conducting an inquiry into the blast,informed that officials from the office of the Deputy Director Factories had last visited the unit in 2005 (the department is supposed to make an inspection of all units at least once a year) while the labour department had never visited the unit. According to Sodhi,the unit has been in operation since 2004.

Sodhi added that the managing director and owner of the unit,Naval Aggarwal has been uncooperative in the inquiry. “Officials of various departments joined the inquiry today. When I asked the owner to submit the plan of the unit,he dilly-dallied and said that it had been sent for some approval. When we asked for the attendance register he came up with some hand written sheets from which it was clear that it had been made after the blast. Aggarwal’s common excuse is that is he is under trauma,” said Sodhi.

The SDM said that although the reason behind the blast has not been ascertained,“…one thing is for sure that there are huge lapses in this unit. While one extractor exploded there are six others that are being tested to ascertain their condition.”