5 workers from state die in K'taka; state to give Rs 2 lakh ex-gratia to next of kin

KOLKATA/MANGALURU: Five workers from Bengal have died of asphyxiation in a fish processing unit here, Mangaluru police Commissioner N Shashi Kumar said on Monday.

The State government has taken up the matter with the Karnataka government and a compensation of Rs two lakh has been announced for the family members of the deceased labourers as instructed by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

According to sources, the labourers from Deganga in North 24-Parganas had been to Katipalla of Mangaluru in Karnataka to work in a fish processing unit.

On Sunday while working a labourer accidentally fell inside a waste collection tank and became unconscious due to the toxic gas. To save their colleague, seven other labourers went inside the tank and they too fell unconscious.

After a while, when other labourers alerted the

officials, the eight labourers were rescued and rushed to a nearby hospital where three labourers died on Sunday night. Two other labourers died on Monday morning.

On Monday Jawed Shamim, Additional Director General (ADG), Law and Order said that as soon as the information of the incident came to their notice, the Bengal government got in touch with the Karnatka Government and Karnataka Police.

"It has been requested by us to the Karnataka government to take necessary steps. Already an FIR has been registered in this regard," he said.

Sources informed that the FIR has been registered against the manager and supervisor on charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

According to the sources, the duo (the manager and the supervisor) has been arrested as well.