Mystery of missing persons: 150 workers "might have" died during Unchahar explosion in Uttar Pradesh

Workers at the power plant

By Sanjeev Kumar and Rajesh Kumar
The tearing hurry in commissioning the unit VI of Unchahar Thermal Power project, Raebareli, Uttar Pradesh, violating all safety norms, is the key reason for the explosion at the project on November 1, a report released in Delhi at a function held on the International Human Rights Day (December 10) said.
Titled, “How Many Deaths Will It Take: A Preliminary Report on Unchahar Tragedy” it said that the number of deaths is underreported and migrant labourers with no formal training, nor safety gears, are forced to carry out critical operations of the project, and many migrant workers are still missing, and their whereabouts are not known to anyone.

Missing persons: Document on display

The 1,550 MW Feroze Gandhi Unchahar Thermal Power project, a coal-based power plant, met with an accident at its Unit VI, which was under construction, killing at least 46 and injuring many.
Most of the labourers suffered burns of 50-70%, and doctors are of the opinion that even if they recover from injury, they would be impaired for life, and the ones with very severe burns might not live more than three to four months, the report said.
Addressing a gathering at the release of the report release ceremony, Urmila, sister of Awadhesh Jaiswal, who died in the accident, said, “There are more deaths than what the authorities are claiming. At the time of accident over 300 labourers were working near the Unit VI. At least 150 people might have died in the accident, many of them burned and buried in the ash.”

Family member displays missing person's I-card

Prabit Purkayastha, a power engineer for the past four decades and an employee at thr National Thermal Power Corporation years back, said, had basic safety procedures been followed, this accident would not have happened.
“Haste to complete the project ahead to schedule, ignoring basic norms, and criminal negligence towards safety procedures led to this ghastly incident,” he said. "The cost of unbridled development is that human lives are devalued and failure to hold authorities accountable in accidents like the one at Unchahar promotes more such accidents", he complained.
A member of the enquiry team, Awadhesh Kumar said that since most the labourers are migrant labourers from different states, they are employed through a contractor, and there are no records available on the details of them.
“We met many family members who were searching for their dear ones, who were working at the plant. Neither could they find them, nor the authorities are helping them find the missing people", he said, even narrating reported incidents of labour law violations at the plant.

The power plant

“What one is witnessing in Unchahar is not an isolated case. The plight of workers in all these development projects are the same - their rights are not recognised, their safety is not the concern of the project owner, nor the government carry out inspections and take adequate steps to protect the labourers,” Roma from the New Trade Union Initiative said.
Senior Congress party functionary Chandrakant Dubey, AK Jain of the All India Power Engineers Federation, Ashok Chowdhury of the All-India Union of Forest Working People, and Sreedhar Ramamurthi of the Mines, Mineral and People attended the report release function.
The report, published by Delhi Solidarity Group, recommended a judicial enquiry into the accident to investigate it thoroughly and to fix responsibility on the ones who erred.
It also recommended that the government should immediately constitute a task force to ascertain the whereabouts of the missing persons, provide adequate compensation and recommended that the Ministry of Power should carry out an audit of all coal power plants to ascertain the state of workers, adherence to safety measures and preparedness for emergencies.
---
Download the report HERE

Comments

The golden crop: How turmeric is transforming women's lives in tribal India

By Vikas Meshram* When the lush green fields of turmeric sway in the tribal belt of southern Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Gujarat, it is not merely a spice crop — it is the golden glow of self-reliance. In villages where even basic spices once had to be bought from the market, the very soil today is yielding a prosperity that has transformed the lives of thousands of families. At the heart of this transformation is the initiative of Vaagdhara, which has linked turmeric with livelihoods, nutrition, and village self-governance — gram swaraj.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Rajiv Shah Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

Authoritarian destruction of the public sphere in Ecuador: Trumpism in action?

By Pilar Troya Fernández The situation in Ecuador under Daniel Noboa's government is one of authoritarianism advancing on several fronts simultaneously to consolidate neoliberalism and total submission to the US international agenda. These are not isolated measures, but rather a coordinated strategy that combines job insecurity, the dismantling of the welfare state, unrestricted access to mining, the continuation of oil exploitation without environmental considerations, the centralization of power through the financial suffocation of local governments, and the systematic criminalization of all forms of opposition and popular organization.

Echoes of Vietnam and Chile: The devastating cost of the I-A Axis in Iran

By Ram Puniyani The recent joint military actions by Israel and the United States against Iran have been devastating. Like all wars, this conflict is brutal to its core, leaving a trail of human suffering in its wake. The stated pretext for this aggression—the brutality of the Ayatollah Khamenei regime and its nuclear ambitions—clashes sharply with the reality of the diplomatic landscape. Iran had expressed a willingness to remain at the negotiating table, signaling a readiness to concede points emerging from dialogue.

False claim? What Venezuela is witnessing is not surrender but a tactical retreat

By Manolo De Los Santos The early morning hours of January 3, 2026, marked an inflection point in Venezuela and Latin America’s centuries-long struggle for self-determination and independence. Operation Absolute Resolve, ordered by the Trump administration, constituted the most brutal and direct military assault on a sovereign state in the region in recent memory. In a shocking operation that left hundreds dead, President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores were illegally kidnapped from Venezuelan soil and transported to the United States, where they now face fabricated charges in a New York federal detention facility. In the two months since this act of war, a torrent of speculation has emerged from so-called experts and pundits across the political spectrum. This has followed three main lines: One . The operation’s success indicated treason at the highest levels of the Bolivarian Revolution. Two . Acting President Delcy Rodríguez and the remaining leadership have abandone...

The selective memory of a violent city: Uttam Nagar and the invisible victims of Delhi

By Sunil Kumar* Hundreds of murders take place in Delhi every year, yet only a few incidents become topics of nationwide discussion. The question is: why does this happen? Today, the incident in Uttam Nagar has become the centre of national debate. A 26-year-old man, Tarun Kumar, was killed following a dispute that reportedly began after a balloon hit a small child. In several colonies of Delhi, slogans such as “Jai Shri Ram” and “Vande Mataram” are being raised while demanding the death penalty for Tarun’s killers. As a result, nearly 50,000 residents of Hastsal JJ Colony are now living in what resembles a state of confinement.

The price of silence: Why Modi won’t follow Shastri, appeal for sacrifice

By Arundhati Dhuru, Sandeep Pandey* In 1965, as India grappled with war and a crippling food crisis, Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri faced a United States that used wheat shipments under the PL-480 agreement as a lever to dictate Indian foreign policy. Shastri’s response remains legendary: he appealed to the nation to skip one meal a day. Millions of middle-class households complied, choosing temporary hunger over the sacrifice of national dignity. Today, India faces a modern equivalent in the energy sector, yet the leadership’s response stands in stark contrast to that era of self-reliance.

Love letters in a lifelong war: Babusha Kohli’s resistance in verse

By Ravi Ranjan* “War does not determine who is right—only who is left.” Bertrand Russell’s words echo hauntingly in our times, and few contemporary Hindi poets embody this truth as profoundly as Babusha Kohli. Emerging from Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, Kohli has carved a unique space in literature by weaving together tenderness, protest, and philosophy across poetry, prose, and cinema. Her work is not merely artistic expression—it is resistance, refuge, and a call for peace.

Search This Blog