Rahul goes to Rae Bareli, meets kin of NTPC blast victims

Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi on Thursday took a break from his Gujarat tour and reached Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh where about 26 persons have died in a boiler blast at a unit of National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC).

Rahul Gandhi met the family members of the victims, according to party sources. According to the reports, the death toll in the state-owned power plant blast on Wednesday in Unchahar town on the Lucknow-Allahabad highway, rose to 26 on Thursday, with six more succumbing to their burn injuries.

Many were feared trapped on Wednesday when the fire broke out inside the boiler and a huge ball of dust rose after the explosion. It made rescue operations difficult, an officials said.

Contractual labourers raised slogans on Thursday against the NTPC management. They claimed they had forewarned about the “impending” disaster at the unit-six as the temperature near the furnace was steadily rising.

Angry locals and family members of the injured have claimed that there was complete absence of medical facilities at the NTPC campus, which led to the spike in the number of casualties.

Union Minister RK Singh and state Power Minister Shrikant Sharma are also slated to visit the site.

The state government has ordered a magisterial probe, while the NTPC is also probing the blast, which took place due to “access ash deposition” in the furnace.

Rae Bareli is the parliamentary constituency of Rahul Gandhi’s mother and Congress President Sonia Gandhi. She would not be able to visit her constituency as she is unwell.

Meanwhile the state chief minister Yogi Adityanath has ordered rupees 2 lakh compensation for the families of those killed. Prime Minister Modi has also announced compensation for the injured and the families of the diseased. PMO tweeted:

With inputs from IANS