VISAKHAPATNAM: A tense situation prevailed at Ukkunagaram on Saturday as scores of workers gathered as an auditorium under construction by the Ukkunagaram Gana Sabha collapsed late on Friday night, resulting in the death of eight workers and injuries to 15 others.

Six bodies were shifted to the mortuary but agitated relatives of the workers prevented the other two from being taken away from the site until a decision was announced on payment of compensation. They raised slogans denouncing the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant management and Pendurthy MLA T. Gurumurthy Reddy.

The situation improved after the steel plant management announced ex gratia of Rs.3 lakhs to the dependents of each of the deceased workers, Rs.50,000 for those who suffered major injuries and Rs.25,000 for minor injuries. The cost of treatment would also be reimbursed by the VSP management and a job would be provided to one dependent from the family of each of the deceased workers.

Sudden downpour

The accident occurred around 11 p.m. on Friday while the workers were involved in laying the slab for the huge dome of the Gana Sabha auditorium. They stopped the work around 5.30 p.m. and restarted the work around 7 p.m. as the slab had to be laid at a stretch. Around 9.30 p.m., there was a sudden downpour and the workers came down and took shelter underneath.

The dome was originally planned to be of four inches thick but later the thickness was increased to 5.5 inch. The centering poles were not single pieces but were joined. The freshly laid slab caved in due to heavy rain and the debris fell on the workers. Of the eight workers who died, six were from Parawada and the rest from Mutyalammapalem. "The construction of the auditorium was taken up in violation of all technicalities in construction," alleged CPI(M) leader Ch. Narasinga Rao.

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