ALLEGED casual approach of the Maharashtra State Power Generation Company Limited (Mahagenco) officials, including an executive engineer, in maintenance of machinery and equipment, resulted in the death of two workers at Khaperkheda Thermal Power Station (TPS) in the small hours of Thursday.

Two workers in the cabin were crushed to death when the counterweight of the stacker equipment, which serves the power transmission line of the thermal power plant for the storage, and the reclaimer machine fell down in the coal handling division around 1.30 am. Technician Santosh Meshram (21), a resident of Jai Bhole Nagar, Khaperkheda; and Praveen Shende (35), a contractual worker of M/s M F Jain Company were killed instantaneously.

Preliminary investigations revealed that the four operators, including Meshram and Shende had submitted a letter to Executive Engineer, CHP-II (Operations) of Khaperkheda Thermal Power Plant on August 6 that the boom of the stacker-reclaimer used to stack coal in the stockyard and to reclaim the same from a stockpile was damaged. It may result in a major tragedy, they added. All the four operators had requested the executive engineer to stop the work till the equipment was completely repaired. However, their request fell on the deaf ears of the authorities who allegedly directed them to continue their work.