A day after 12 employees of the Bhilai steel plant died in an explosion, the Union government removed the state-owned steel unit's CEO, M Ravi, and suspended two senior officers.
The action came after Union Steel Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh inspected the accident site on Wednesday.
Singh also visited the injured in Jawaharlal Nehru Hospital in Bhilai, around 35 km from Chhattisgarh capital Raipur.
The Minister said an inquiry committee will investigate the incident and submit its report within a week.
The suspended officers are general manager (safety department) T. Pandya Raja and deputy general manager (energy department) Naveen Kumar.
Addressing media persons, the minister said new technology would be introduced to prevent recurrence of such incidents.
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The Minister announced an ex-gratia of Rs 30 lakh each to the families of the deceased employees, Rs 15 lakh each to the seriously injured and Rs 2 lakh each to those with minor injuries.
Singh said apart from the internal inquiry committee formed by SAIL on Tuesday, another high-level inquiry panel comprising experts will be set up by the Ministry of Steel to probe the incident.
The explosion occurred around 10.30 a.m. on Tuesday during maintenance work.
Sources said over a dozen persons injured in the blast have been admitted to the intensive care unit of Bhilai's Sector 9 hospital.
The bodies of seven victims have been identified while DNA tests are being conducted to ascertain the identify of the remaining victims, sources said.
--IANS
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