Six die,eight hurt as spinning mill ceiling collapses

The Rishabh Spinning mills is owned by the Nahar Group which has famous brands like Monte Carlo and Cotton County to its name. The CEO of this unit is S D Awasthi while Daman Oswal,the younger son of well-known industrialist Jawahar Oswal,is the owner of this unit.

SSP,Ludhiana (rural),Gursharan Singh said,“The civil hospital at Jagraon has received four dead bodies. Three bodies were brought directly to this hospital while one more body was brought in from Oswal Hospital Ludhiana. The injured have been sent to various hospital in Ludhiana. We have about eight injured workers here,but are gathering more information about the injured.”

A worker in the mill said,“We heard a loud sound,and turned back to see the entire steel structure coming down.” A massive construction work is being carried out on the premises of the unit and for now no one knows for sure as to how many people were actually working under this steel rood when the accident took place.

Vice-president of industrial relations S K Aggarwal said,“This is an accident. We have employed one of the best contractors for the construction work. He has vast experience and has worked for us earlier. We can say is this is an accident. The company will bear the cost of treatment of all those injured while the compensation for causalities will also be worked out.”

However,a deadly silence spread over this huge unit which runs into acres. Workers for various segments of the unit began walking in for the night shift with grim expressions and tension writ large on their faces.

Darshan Singh a resident of Jodhan who recalls having sold his land for this unit said,“The way pillars have come off shows that the quality of construction material used here was not too good.”

The area police,too,had to face a lot of difficulties in getting the unit officials moving. One such police officer informed,“I have asked the unit owners to send in some labour so that we could cut through the steel and look for any more bodies lying under the debris. But the factory officials simply refuse to budge and they keep passing on order from one person to another. It is getting dark and soon the rescue work will have to be stopped.”