One migrant worker dead, 2 critical after cleaning fish oil tank

A migrant laborer died allegedly of asphyxiation while at work in private fish oil and powder extracting mill near Thondi in Ramanathapuram district on Sunday. The deceased has been identified as S Nabin Oram (25) of Odisha. Besides, the condition of two fellow workers, who also belong to Odisha, is said to be critical.

The incident occurred at Machur village around 10 am, sources said. On learning about the incident, Thondi police and Tiruvadanai Tahsildar R Senthilvel Murugan inspected the spot and held inquiries.

Murugan said the incident occurred while Oram was cleaning a thousand-liter waste tank. Two of his fellow workers including K Anil Majhi (24) and K Jashman Kujur (20) waited for his return at the work spot.

Since Oram did not come out from the tank, the duo got into the tank and managed to rescue him. But, he died on the way to the hospital. However, the tank tilted and fell down and the fellow workers, including Majhi and Kujur, were injured and initially taken to Thondi Government Hospital, which is located 8 km away and later referred to Ramanathapuram Government Medical College Hospital.

The private firm has two waste storage tanks with a thousand-liter capacity each and the tanks used to be cleaned weekly by workers, who had previous experience. But these three workers, without prior exposure to such a situation, who got exposed to the deadly poisonous gas, were affected. Based on a complaint lodged by Radha, Village Administrative Officer, Machur, a case has been filed by the Thondi police to take necessary action for lack of safety measures, he said.