HYDERABAD: Eleven migrant workers from Bihar were burnt alive in sleep after a fire swept through an unauthorised scrap godown in Secunderabad on Wednesday morning. Officials said a short circuit may have started the fire.
Fire officials said a short circuit in a switch board near the stairs on the ground floor may have started the fire which later spread to an LPG cylinder kept nearby, triggering a blast.
It took nearly three hours for five fire tenders to douse the blaze and reach the bodies on the first floor of the godown which were charred beyond recognition. Most of the bodies of the workers, who were in the age group of 20 to 40 years, were found in a heap.
On noticing the inferno and the loud sound, a watchman of a nearby timber depot informed his owner, who in turn called police at 3.59 am and alerted the fire department about the accident at the godown, located in one of the narrow bylanes of Bhoiguda.
When police officers reached the spot, they found the lone survivor lying on the road at some distance, with flames and thick smoke billowing from the godown. The survivor, who identified himself as Prem, said that his co-workers were trapped in the godown. He squeezed through the bars of a window and jumped from the first floor.
India on Thursday did not rule out buying crude oil at discounted rates from Russia, with external affairs ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi pointing out that several European countries were still importing energy from Russia.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacted with various stakeholders, including community organisations and embassy officials from Hungary among other countries neighbouring Ukraine, for their involvement in Operation Ganga on Tuesday.
Underlining that India’s “legitimate energy transactions should not be politicised”, Delhi hit out Friday at the West, saying countries with “oil self-sufficiency or those importing themselves from Russia cannot credibly advocate restrictive trading”.
India’s sharp reaction comes at a time when Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), the country’s top oil firm, has bought 3 million barrels of crude oil that Russia had offered at a steep discount on prevailing international rates. The purchase, made through a trader, is the first since Russia’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine that led to international pressure to isolate the Putin administration.
Russian oil exports to India, the third largest energy consumer, quadrupled in March, Financial Times reported Friday.
Russia has so far exported 360,000 barrels of oil a day to India in March alone, nearly four times the 2021 average. The report cited Kpler, a commodities data and analytics firm, to say that Russia is on track to hit 203,000 barrels a day for the whole month, based on current shipment schedules.
Sources in Delhi said “countries with oil self-sufficiency or those importing themselves from Russia cannot credibly advocate restrictive trading. India’s legitimate energy transactions should not be politicised.”
India is highly dependent on imports for meeting its energy requirements. “Nearly 85 per cent of our crude oil requirement (5 million barrels a day) has to be imported,” a source said.
Source: https://indianexpress.com/article/india/discounted-crude-oil-from-russia-oil-sufficient-countries-need-not-advise-on-russian-imports-says-india-7826389/