Gujarat Factory Blast (img: File)

Updated on Feb 7, at 8.48 p.m.

In the blast case at the Vadodara-based pharmaceutical company Oneira Life Care which took the lives of three factory workers on Jan 31, Balvantsinh Rajput, minister of labour, skill development, and employment responded to the queries raised by the opposition.

Congress leader Arjun Modhwadia raised the query in the Assembly. Rajput  revealed details about the incident saying that the blast took place in the effluent treatment (ET) plant.

Rajput added that the three workers who died in this blast included Thakor Rajiv Parmar, Narendra Solanki, and Ramesh Padhiyar, while the two workers injured in this blast are Mayur Parmar and Bharat Tirgar.

They were immediately shifted to private hospitals, and after an improvement in Tirgar’s health , he has been discharged.

Alongside, under the Employees State Insurance Act, 1948, applicable in Vadodara, the legal heirs of the deceased workers in this blast are to be compensated through the central government’s Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) department. The procedure to avail the affected families of these claims has already been initiated by the factory owners.

Claims regarding compensation to the injured under ESIC and the Workmen Compensation Act, 1923, have also been initiated, said Rajput.

Rajput added that the ministry directed a surplus compensation of ₹30 lakh for the kins of each of the deceased from the factory owners.

Vadodara’s deputy director of the Industrial Safety and Health department issued an injunction under the Factories Act, 1948, to stop production at the factory, and a thorough investigation into the incident is underway, he added.

Updated on Feb 1, at 4.48 p.m.

A massive blast at the factory of a pharmaceutical company in Vadodara’s Padra area took the lives of three factory workers on Jan 31.

The blast took place at Oneira Life Care, located on the outskirts of the city’s Ekalbara village.

The blast reportedly took place at 1.45 p.m. in a reactor of the company’ plant due to a technical mishap.

As per reliable sources, the company produces pharmaceutical intermediates.

The blast took place in the company’s plant when workers were collecting the waste water separated from the solid chemicals.

During this process, the pressure inside the vessel spiked rapidly, followed by a blazing fire.

Three workers filling the bags with material and another two passerby workers were burned in this incident.

Following the blast, ambulances and fire vehicles were called from the nearby factories.

A total of five workers sustained serious injuries in this blast, and all of them were taken to private hospitals in Padra and Vadodara.

Three of the workers succumbed to their injuries in this blast and died in the hospital.

All three of them were contract-based workers in the factory.

A probe has been launched regarding this blast by the local police, the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL), and the Industrial Safety and Health department.

The Industrial Safety and Health department also issued a notice to the company to cease their production immediately.

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