Bhubaneswar, Aug. 11: Opposition leaders targeted the Mahanadi Coalfields Limited authorities accusing it of gross negligence today as rescue workers forked out one more body from the heaps of waste coal at the Kulda open cast mine in Sundergarh district today taking the death toll in the cave-in incident to 10.

“Top officials of Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL) should be sued for negligence,” said Sundergarh MLA Jogesh Kumar Singh, threatening to launch an agitation if the company did not accede to his demand for increase in the ex-gratia amount announced for the next of kin of the deceased.

While the company has announced payment of Rs 3 lakh to each bereaved family, the Congress legislator wants it to be raised to at least Rs 25 lakh.

“We demand Rs 25 lakh to Rs 50 lakh as compensation to each family,” he said.

Singh put the toll at 11 but Sundergarh superintendent of police Sanjeev Arora confirmed only 10 deaths.

MCL public relations officer Dikken Mehera also gave the same figure saying one more body was retrieved from the debris this evening.

Nine victims, including four women, have been identified. They are Dulari Bhoi, Gurubari Majhi, Bhagawati Majhi, Rayamani Seth, Deepak Nayak, Rajesh Dhandi, Mukteswar Kuanr, Sukesh Satpathy and Sumanta Kharsel.

While seven of them were from Bolinga village located on the periphery of the Kulda mine area, two others were from Bhasma and Rengali, which are about 50 to 60 kms away.

Leaders of almost all major parties, including minister of state for surface transport and commerce Subrat Tarei, visited the area today and met the family members of those killed in the mishap.

BJP Rajya Sabha member Dharmendra Pradhan also criticised the coal major accusing it of negligence. He alleged that security parameters laid down by director general of mines had not been followed.

However, Mehera refuted the charge of negligence saying that any open cast mine in the world could not have a boundary wall because mining was an expanding activity.