Moily announces Rs 5 lakh aid each to victims’ kin

Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister M Veerappa Moily on Sunday visited the Indian Oil Corporation's Hazira terminal where a major fire broke out a day earlier, and on behalf of IOC, he announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh each to the family members of those who died in the incident.

He said a high-level investigation into the incident has been ordered and a report is expected by January 20. He met wife of one of the victim identified as Jalandar Chaudhary (35), a native of Bihar.

Moily appreciated the work of local administration, fire brigade and other public and private sector companies for the massive disaster management operation and containing the fire which had started on Saturday afternoon.

Talking to the mediapersons here, Moily said, "The blast took place in the petrol storage tank no. 4 at 12.30 pm on Saturday in IOC terminal at Hazira. The loss is estimated up to Rs. 45 crores including 5,027 kilolitres of petrol stocked in the tank 4 and Rs 10 crore of infrastructure was destroyed. We have announced Rs 5 lakh as compensation to each of deceased family members. The compensation amount would be released today through district collector of Surat. If the deceased family members want to return back to their native places we will also provide transportation facilities and even we will look into the rehabilitation of the deceased families."

"At present, it is difficult for us to comment anything about the incident. It is under investigation whether the fire was caused by human error or not, both by the district administration and a high-level inquiry. Everything will be investigated. No one will be spared if there is an error," he added.

Recalling the fire at IOC in Jaipur he said, "This is an immediate instance of disaster management mechanism in place, unlike Jaipur, where everything was gutted."

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