Berhampur, Dec. 19: Nineteen women of a self-help group suffered injuries after the floor of Pittala gram panchayat office in Hinjili at Seragada block in Ganjam district caved in to a depth of about six feet at 7.30am today.
The condition of six of them is said to be serious.
The injured women belonged to Pittala and Santoshpur villages. Incidentally, chief minister Naveen Patnaik represents Hinjli in the state Assembly. Although there is a primary health centre in Pittala but it had no doctor at that time, so the injured were taken to the community health centre in Hinjili, which is 11km away from Pittala. The women were taken to Hinjili by ambulances with the help of local residents. Later, six of them, whose condition was said to be serious, were moved to the MKCG hospital in Berhampur, sources said.
The floor caved in when 25 self-help group members were attending a meeting on sanitation awareness.
"The incident took place in seconds. There was a loud crash and the floor tiles caved in. We thought it was an earthquake. Some of the women slipped into the ditch, while some got trapped under a steel almirah. They suffered injuries on their waist, hands, legs and head," said Jhunu Tarai, who suffered injuries to her waist and leg.
At present, Jhunu Tarai, Indumati Sabat, Jayanti Mahanty, Sashi Nayak, Janaki Nayak and Laxmi Panda are undergoing treatment at the MKCG hospital.
Block development officer, Seragada, Ranjan Kumar Biswal, and the inspector in charge, Hinjili police station, Prasant Kumar Sahu, have visited the spot. The community health centre in Hinjili is monitoring the health condition of the injured women.
Biswal said the incident was an accident.
However, some local residents alleged that the floor was washed away during cyclonic storm Phailin in 2013 and was reconstructed later using sand.
BJP district unit secretary Bikas Acharya, who belongs to Pittala, said the foundation of the panchayat office building, which was renovated at a cost of Rs 5 lakh sanctioned by chief minister Naveen Patnaik, was not done properly. "I had informed the BDO Seragada about this," Acharya said.
