By Zaidul Haque, TwoCircles.net,
Kolkata/Medinipur: A tragic tank burst on the morning of Saturday in leather tannery in Ranipet, Tamil Nadu has killed 10 labourers who were sleeping in an adjoining room, almost all of them from the West Medinipur district of West Bengal.
The workers were drowned in the wee hours of the morning on Saturday due to a flood caused by the sudden burst of a big tank operating through the CETP (common effluent treatment plant).
Family members of victims of tragedy in a tannery in Ranipet, waiting for their sons in West Medinipur district of West Bengal.
Out of ten drowned labourers, nine were from Chandrakona and Garbeta areas of West Medinipur district of West Bengal. As the news reached the village, shock and mourning gripped the villagers.
Some of the men from the poor Muslim locality of Medinipur had migrated to Ranipet in hope of better life. According to local inputs, more than 200 men from the region, mainly from Uparchaltabandhi village of Lakhsmipur Grampanchayet in Chandrakona, are working in Ranipet alone.
Only about two weeks ago a fresh batch of 10 persons had gone to Ranipet hoping to earn money. Nine of the persons killed from West Bengal, comprise of this batch.
The family of Shukur Khan is in shock, they have lost two of their sons, Asian Khan (19) and Kurban Khan (21). Anwar Khan too has lost his one son and two grandsons, Habib Khan (46) and his two son Ali Akbar Khan (22) and Ali Asgar Khan (19). Piyar Ali Khan (25) from the same village too became a casualty.
Anwar Khan shows his son’s photograph, who is dead in tannery tragedy in Ranipet.
Balarampur village of Garbeta is also in mourning. The village has lost three youth Sajahan Mallick (24), Kutubuddin Mallick (18), Shukur Ali Mallick (19).
Apprehensive villagers now want their kin back fearing for their lives too, as they wait for the dead bodies to arrive. Being extremely poor, villagers were not even sure how to bring back the dead bodies.
According to a villager, Ainuddin Subdivisional Officer Amitabha Dutta visited the village and talked to victims’ families and assured them to help as needed.
The Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, O. Panneerselvam has expressed his grief on the accident and announced a compensation of Rs.3 lakh to each of the 10 victims’’ families and Rs.25,000 to those injured.
Meanwhile, on Saturday afternoon, Minister for Disaster Management and Fire and Emergency Services Javed Ahmed Khan assured that the state government will give a compensation of rupees two lakh to the families of vicitms.
According to reports, the flood occurred by a breach in the concrete wall of the sludge storage tank of the adjacent Common Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP) that caught the workers who were asleep, unawares.
Meanwhile, a case has been registered under sections 337 (causing hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others), 285 (negligent conduct with respect to fire or combustible matter) and 304 (ii) (causing death by negligence) of the IPC.