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4 workers killed, 3 injured in coal mine blast on Telangana’s Peddapalli
At least four workers were killed and three seriously injured in explosion at an open cast coal mine of state-owned Singareni Collieries Company in Peddapalli district of Telangana, reports said on Tuesday.
Four contractual workers were killed and three others sustained injuries in an explosion at a coal mine of the state-run Singareni Collieries Company Ltd (SCCL) in Telangana’s Peddapalli district on Tuesday morning, the police said.
The dead workers have been identified as Rajesh and Arjaiah from Kamanpur village and Rakesh and Praveen of Godavarikhani—all in the age group of around 30 years who were working on contract in the coal mine.
The bodies were shifted to Singareni Area Hospital at Godavarikhani for post-mortem.
Ramagunda commissioner of police V Satyanarayana said while speaking to reporters that three other contract workers—Venkatesh from Kamanpur, Bheemaiah from Ratnapur and Shankar form Julapalli villages—received grievous injuries and were shifted to the same hospital for treatment.
The accident happened in the open cast mine-I of Ramagundam Region-III of Singareni coal mines of Ramagiri mandal.
Though it is not exactly known how the explosion took place in the mine, preliminary inquiries by the police revealed that explosive material used in coal mines to blast stones in the open cast mines went off accidentally.
“The workers dig holes to coal stocks and blast them by fixing detonators in the holes. Later, the coal would be shifted to surface. The blast is learnt to have occurred while fixing detonators in the holes,” a police official from Ramagundam said.
Peddapalli MP Venkatesh Netha, Ramagundam MLA Korukanti Chander, Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) general secretary Janak Prasad and Bharatiya Janata Party Ramagundam district unit president Somarapu Satyanarayana called on the injured in the hospital.
Leaders of the Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) demanded that the Singareni management should pay ex gratia of ₹1 crore to each of the families of the deceased.
“We also demand that all the three injured be paid a compensation of ₹50 lakh each. The government should order a judicial probe into the explosion,” Janak Prasad demanded.
