A worker died and
another fell ill inhaling toxic gas while cleaning oil from a scrap ship at a
shipbreaking yard in Sitakunda on Friday afternoon.
The deceased is
Biplob Haldar, 27, son of Bijon Haldar of Pirojpur, and the injured is Md
Jashim, 25. They were cleaning oil from the ship's tank at Premium Trade
Corporation owned by Nurun Nabi Manik at Baraowlia of Sitakunda.
Sanjay Haldar,
Biplob's maternal uncle who also works at the yard, said he heard Biplob and
Jashim were injured inhaling toxic gas when they lifted the lid of a tank
aboard MV Elite around 3:00pm.
They were taken to
three private hospitals in the port city but were refused treatment there,
Sanjay added.
Later, the management
of the yard sent the duo to Chittagong Medical College Hospital. They were
taken to CMCH around 8:00pm, almost five hours after the incident.
Biplob was
pronounced dead on arrival, while Jashim was admitted to the hospital.
The postmortem on
the body was done on Saturday afternoon, a day after the incident.
Sanjay claimed his
nephew was not wearing any protective gear and the shipbreaking yard
authorities only provided transport cost for the body.
Abdul Hye Khan,
deputy inspector general of Department of Inspection for Factories and
Establishment (DIFE), said a team from the department visited the site after
the accident.
Asked if the yard
secured proper certificates for dismantling the ship, he said, “The yard
authorities said they would submit the necessary certificates to us in the
afternoon today (Sunday).”
Shipbreaking
requires two certificates from the Department of Explosives. One is needed when
a ship comes at the outer anchorage and the other after beaching the ship in
the yard.
Officials from the
explosives department visit the ship and provide the certificates after
examining if explosives and toxic gas have completely been removed, he said.
Yard owner Nurun
Nabi could not be contacted over the phone. A person identifying himself as his
personal secretary told this correspondent that Nabi was busy in a meeting.
Officer-in-Charge
of Sitakunda police Iftekhar Hossain said an unnatural death case was filed on
Friday evening.
Source: the
daily star. 18 April 2016
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