Bhubaneswar: Odisha has confirmed death of one more worker from the state in the explosion at the chemical factory in Telangana, taking the toll to nine on Saturday.
Officer on Special Duty (OSD), Directorate of Odisha Parivaar, Pritish Panda identified the deceased as Purna Chandra Sahu, a native of Sukarpada in Cuttack district. “Out of the nine deceased persons, three were from Ganjam district, two from Cuttack, another two from Nabarangpur and one each from Balasore and Jajpur districts. The bodies have been handed over to their family members,” he told PTI.
Among the four injured, two have been discharged while another two are under treatment, he added.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Mohan Majhi, in a post on X, announced an ex-gratia of Rs 10 lakh from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund for the next of the kin of Sahu. He had announced similar assistance for eight other deceased workers the previous day.
Initially, Rajnala Jagan Mohan of Chatrapur in Ganjam, Lagnajeet Duari of Paikarapur in Cuttack’s Tigiria, Manoj Rout of Parbatipur in Balasore’s Simulia, Dolagobinda Sahu of Erabanka in Jajpur’s Dharmasala were found dead following the powerful explosion, which triggered a fire at Sigachi pharmaceutical factory in Pashamylaram industrial area in Sangareddy district on Monday.
Identity of four others were confirmed using DNA-based analysis on Thursday. They were identified as Chaita Bhadra and Ramesh Gauda of Nabarangpur, Siddharth Gouda of Mahanadapur in Ganjam and Prasant Mohapatra of Berhampur in Ganjam.
Among the injured, Samir Padhy (24), a machine operator from Ganjam, has suffered 35% burns. The other three are Chandan Kumar Naik of Bhadrak, and Neelambar Batra and Chitrasen Batra of Nabarangpur.