Plant blast triggers fear

Bokaro: A blast in Bokaro Steel Plant?s reheating furnace spread panic among workers who ran helter-skelter fearing for their lives.

The incident took place at about 9.15 am when the aluminium flinch of the reheating furnace burst due to nitrogen gas pressure of about 1300 degrees Celsius, leading to a breakdown.

The production was stopped for more than three hours. No one was injured.

The workers, hearing the blast, were scared that there might have been a gas leak and started running from the unit.

Senior officials reached the accident site and pacified the workers.

It was the first such incident in the plant?s history, sources said.

Communication department sources said the accident was due to the flinch blast at the reheating furnace which was repaired immediately and the production resumed.

The disruption of production led to a loss of several lakhs of rupees.

Policeman suspended

Bokaro: The superintendent of police, Bokaro, Manvinder Singh Bhatia, suspended police in-charge of Chas muffasil police station J.D. Sharma on Wednesday on charge of misbehaving with residents of Dhobni village.

On September 18, a minor was allegedly raped at Dhobni village, about 18 km from Bokaro. A group of irate villagers had gathered at the Chas police station demanding the culprit?s arrest. Sharma had refused to believe the villagers and had even carried out a mild lathicharge on the mob. Later, SP Bhatia and deputy commissioner Amrendra Pratap had pacified the angry villagers.

Lax workers

Giridih: Thousands of people living below poverty of Barwadih, Bulaqi Road, Muslim Bazar and other places could not get registered for central and state government?s schemes as jansewaks and panchayat sewaks did not turned up. The residents met deputy commissioner and alleged that they have been neglected deliberately. They also demanded a new date for registration work.

Workshop

Giridih: NGOs against child labour ? Save the Childhood Foundation, Bachchpan Bachao Andolan and Bal Vikash Dhara ? will jointly hold a daylong workshop on September 29 here. A documentary made on children of mica industry in Giridih and Koderma will also be released at the function.

Dharna time

Giridih: There were lots of demonstrations on Wednesday here. One dharna was held by Majdoor Sangathan Samiti against police atrocities in Giridih district. Later, the dharna turned into all partyshow as JD(U), JMM, CPI(M) and Forward Bloc also took part in the protest. The second dharna was called by the UPA against the failure of the Munda government to conduct panchayat polls. Berojgar Sena too demonstrated against government contract jobs.

Bar poll results

Hazaribagh: Bhuvaneshwar Prasad alias Bhunnu Babu was re-elected president of Hazaribagh Bar Association. Kishori Mohan Verma won the post of secretary. The two will hold the post for the third consecutive term.

Legal camp

Chaibasa: West Singhbhum District Legal Services Authority organised a legal awareness camp at Asura Middle School on Tuesday. The camp, held in association with Gram Sabha Asura, stressed on safeguarding the fundamental rights as laid down in the Indian Constitution. First additional district judge Pradip Kumar spoke at the camp.

Three students of Kerala Public School, Rabindranath Purty, Sunil Kumar and Pranay Kumar Urma, were selected for scholarship award by the SAI for their performance at the district level taekwondo championship-2003.