Visakhapatnam: Nine workers sustained burn injuries when a mishap led to splashing of hot slag at the Steel Melting Shop-2 of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP) on Saturday.
The mishap occurred at about 12.25 pm when workers tried to clear the stuck slag pot at the melting shop. Following this, hot slag fell from the ladle and splashed on to nine workers, causing burn injuries to them.
All the injured received first aid at Visakha Steel General Hospital before being shifted to a super speciality hospital in the city. Two of the workers sustained 60 per cent burn injuries. Their condition is said to be serious.
Family members of the injured have requested the management to shift patients to Mumbai for specialised treatment.
RINL CMD Atul Bhatt, director D.K. Mohanty and senior officials visited the injured workers at the hospital and later met their family members.
The injured VSP staffers have been identified as Anil Pahiwala (DGM), Jay Kumar (senior manager), Eswar Naik (technician) and Panda Sahu (chargeman). Contract workers injured are Bangarayya, Suribabu, Appalaraju, Srinivas and Pothayya.
CPM city secretary B. Ganga Rao accused RINL management of ignoring safety by not recruiting qualified permanent staff. As a result, he said, 103 workers have been injured during last two years, with five of them losing their lives.
Expressing concern, steel plant union general secretary Mantri Rajasekhar underlined that too many accidents have been taking place in steel melting shops due to negligent attitude of the management.
