Chlorine gas leakage in SCB: 6-member team to conduct probe

Cuttack: The district administration today constituted a six-member team led by ADM (Revenue) Raghuram Iyer to probe the Chlorine gas leakage incident on SCB premises on Wednesday.

The team will comprise officials of the public health division, additional director of Factories & Boilers Directorate and SCB superintendent.

The district collector has asked the team to submit the probe report based on which action will be initiated.

Earlier on Wednesday, as many as 46 persons including some students of the nearby hostels, fire fighting officials and other patients admitted in the treatment wards of the hospital around the pump house fell sick following leakage of the gas from tanks placed inside the pump house.

After getting information, police and fire fighters rushed to the spot and took away the leaking tank to Mahanadi river bed.

While some of them were initially discharged from the hospital after preliminary treatment, as many as 26 persons are presently undergoing treatment. Out of them 14 are being treated in Pulmonary medicine, 12 including 8 fire fighting officials have been shifted to ICU.

As per information, there were three chlorine tanks  in the pump house where the chemical is generally stashed for purification of the pumped water and a leakage was reportedly spotted in one of the older tanks.

Industries Minister Niranjan Pujari is also scheduled to visit the hospital today to take stock of the situation.

Meanwhile, the presence of old tank inside the hospital premises without any replacement has revealed the negligence on the part of the health department.

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