Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Sunday expressed grief over the death of four vegetable vendors, who were killed after a portion of a wall of a rice mill collapsed at the Alasua weekly haat in Dhenkanal town this morning.
Expressing deep sympathy to the bereaved families, Naveen announced an ex-gratia of Rs 4 lakh each to the next of the kin of the deceased from the Chief Minister Relief Fund (CMRF).
The Dhenkanal district collector, Nikhil Pavan Kalyan, had earlier announced an ex-gratia of Rs 25,000 each to the families of those who died in the incident.
The deceased have been identified as Sangram Sahu of Chainpur, Rama Chandra Sahu of Gengutia, Abhimanyu Biswal of Gurjang and Mayadhar Mallik of Sidhapal. The bodies were handed over to their family members after postmortem at the district headquarters hospital.
Meanwhile, of the seven injured persons, three were shifted to SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack after their condition became critical.
According to locals, the construction of a vending zone for the weekly haat was underway at Alasua for the past two years. The work was, however, still incomplete due to inordinate delay in construction work by the local contractor. Had the vending zone come up in the area withing the scheduled time frame, such an unfortunate incident could have been averted, they claimed.
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