ON 24 January 2019, three workers at the ACC Cement Factory in Sindri were buried in cement; two died on the spot and the third died in hospital during treatment. The incident took place at about 9 pm. The names of the workers are Gopal Singh, Ajit Gorai and Nimai Mandal. Without informing the workers who were working at the factory, the management hastily called an ambulance and sent the injured workers to Jalan Hospital in Dhanbad. But news of the incident spread like wildfire, resulting in protests at the factory gate by the family members and other villagers against the management.
The CPI(ML) held a protest after which the management called the police and the entire area was converted into a police camp. The main reason for the incident was that the debris during cement production was being cleared by hand instead of by machines for some days past. During this cleaning, three sacks of cement hanging overhead fell on top of the workers. The incident was caused by the negligence of the management.
Late at night, talks were held between party unions and the management. Finally, an agreement was reached that the dependents of each dead victim would be given Rs 13 lakh compensation, jobs for one dependent in each family, and Rs 12,000 to each family for funeral rites. The post-mortems were then done and the bodies handed over to the families. Present at the talks were AICCTU leaders comrades Kartik Prasad Hadi, Nakul Dev Singh, Sudhir Mahto, Subhash Mandal, Sagar Mandal, Krishna Prasad and others.
