…Three workers died and another was in a critical condition after they inhaled toxic gas at a sugar mill in Bijnor district, became unconscious and fell into the mill’s water treatment plant when it was being cleaned, officials said. The incident occurred at Uttam Sugar Mill in Barkatpur village under jurisdiction of Nangal police station around 10.30am.

The authorities have launched a probe into the incident. Preliminary findings indicated that basic industrial safety norms were ignored.

“Appropriate legal and administrative action will follow once the full report is submitted,” Bijnor district magistrate Jasjit Kaur said.

Bijnor’s ASP City Sanjeev Bajpai said the sugar mill had flouted basic safety protocols.

“The workers were sent to clean a hazardous tank without any safety kits or gas masks. No gas detection equipment was present. This is a grave violation of industrial safety norms,” he said.

The deceased were identified as Kapil Dev (30), resident of Titosra village; Sopal (49) of Lalpur village; and Muneshwar Kumar (45), supervisor from Kabulpur. …