Prime Minister Narendra Modi assures all help to Baghjan victims' families

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday assured the Assam Government that the Centre would take all necessary steps for compensation, relief and rehabilitation of the affected families of the Baghjan gas well blowout incident.

Modi also assured that the Centre would take all precautionary measures to minimize the possibility of any such incident in future.

The PM's assurance came during his interaction with Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal through video-conference. He reviewed the progress of control measures being carried out at the Baghjan gas well, which had erupted into flames on June 9, besides the government relief operations to provide succour to the affected families. Modi was chairing a meeting of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) at New Delhi.

Apprising the Prime Minister about the latest situation at Baghjan, Chief Minister Sonowal said that people in the nearby areas are still in panic as the gas well is yet to be capped. He said that tremors are being felt in three-kilometre radius from the Baghjan gas well site which also caused damage to houses creating further fear among people. He also informed that experts from NEIST and IIT Guwahati have been entrusted to study this phenomenon.

Sonowal said that Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan is personally monitoring the control measures, which are being carried out by foreign and Indian experts.

The CM further requested the Prime Minister to upgrade the Petroleum Technology Department of Dibrugarh University so that it can groom experts locally to tackle incidents of this kind. He observed that such an effort would help in taking expeditious measures without waiting for foreign experts at the time of such incidents in future. 

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