Class 11 student killed as wall collapses during blasting at Singrauli coal block

A wall of a house collapsed during blasting in the Amelia Bandha coal block area of Singrauli, and a 17-year-old student buried under the debris died. The incident took place on Saturday evening, but came to light only on Wednesday, five days later.

The deceased has been identified as Devesh Gupta, son of Sunil Gupta. He was a Class 11 student at the Utkrisht Vidyalaya in Baidhan.

According to Devesh's uncle, Ram Bihari Gupta, at around 5 pm on Saturday Devesh was tying up and feeding fodder to large cattle in a house behind their home. At that moment the coal block company carried out blasting. One wall of the house fell, and Devesh was buried under the debris.

Family members pulled him out of the rubble and took him to the Baidhan hospital. After initial treatment there, he was being taken to Jabalpur for better care, but he died on the way.

Ram Bihari Gupta has alleged that had compensation been paid on time and the family been properly resettled elsewhere, his nephew would be alive today. The family has demanded that the company management and the administration pay compensation, resettle the family in an orderly manner and take action against those responsible.

The police were not informed of the incident. Even after about five days, the family has not given a written complaint at the Barghawan police station. The student was cremated without informing the police and without a post-mortem examination.

Barghawan station in-charge Anil Patel said the police have no knowledge of the incident. He said that if such an incident has occurred in the village, the family should have informed the police.

An attempt was made to contact Rajeev Kishore, spokesperson for the company management, to obtain its side, but he could not be reached.