File picture of Bhushan plant

Dhenkanal/Cuttack, Nov. 22: The sub-divisional judicial magistrate Dhenkanal today issued non-bailable warrants against two senior officials of the Bhushan steel plant for not appearing in the court for four different cases.

Satish Tyagi, senior vice-president and Rahul Sengupta, member, board of directors, were the two officials against whom the warrants have been issued.

Of the four cases, one dates back to 2009 and the rest to 2011. All these cases are related to accidents on the plant premises.

When the case was taken up for hearing, neither were they present in the court nor did any lawyer come forward to defend on their behalf.

The directorate of factories and boilers lodged these cases.

In another development, hundreds of CPM activists led by Janardan Pati today staged a dharna before the Dhenkanal collectorate demanding arrest of the managing director of the steel plant and a judicial probe into the November 13 fire mishap in the Bhushan steel plant.

Two PILs were filed today in the high court against Bhushan steel plant for violating safety measures.

While one PIL sought judicial probe, the other urged the court to direct for a CBI inquiry into the blast furnace accident that occurred on November 13 inside the plant premises that left two dead and 29 others injured.

While Prafulla Samantaray, environmental activist, filed one of these PILs, Nishikanta Mishra, secretary of Nationalist Lawyers’ Forum, filed the other.

In his petition, Samantray sought appointment of a judicial commission to inquire into the circumstances leading to the November 13 accident, negligence of safety measures, environmental status and measure for prevention of similar incidents.

“The company has not followed the proper legal procedure and also has not obtained environmental clearance. Since the inception of the plant about 100 workers have been killed in the accident and around 70 criminal cases are pending in the court against the company,” Samantray said in his petition.

The petition was filed through advocate Kshirod Rout.

Mishra sought a CBI probe into the alleged gross negligence in the implementation of labour laws and safety measures.

Director, factories and boiler, P.C. Das said: “All the blame should be put on the plant authorities. There is a clear violation of safety measures that should have been followed. They did not take any permission from us while commissioning the blast furnace II.”

The fire had reportedly occurred as the hot slag metal came in contact with cold water. The temperature of the slag metal was 1,200°C at that time, officials said.