Serum Institute Of India announce compensation of Rs 25 lakh to families of deceased

Today, due to unfortunate circumstances fire broke out at the Pune’s Manjhri plant of Serum Institute of India. SII promised a compensation of Rs 25 lakh to the families of five people who died.

Cyrus Poonawalla, Chairman & MD, SII, said, “Today is an extremely sorrowful day for all of us at SII. We’re deeply saddened and offer our condolences to families of the departed. We’ll be offering compensation of 25 Lakhs to each family, in addition to mandated amount as per the norms.”

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Earlier in the day, fire broke out at the Special Economic Zone of Manjhri plant(SII) where five people lost their life. President Ramnath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have taken cognizance of the incident and expressed their condolences.

Prime Minister Modi tweeted, “Anguished by the loss of lives due to an unfortunate fire at Serum Institute of India. In this sad hour, my thoughts are with the families of those who lost their lives. I pray that the injured recover at the earliest.”

President Ram Nath Kovind also expressed grief over the unfortunate event and tweeted, “The loss of lives in a fire accident at the Serum Institute of India in Pune is distressing. My thoughts and prayers are with the bereaved families. I wish speedy recovery of the injured.”

According to officials, five persons died and nine were evacuated from the Serum’s Manjari premises today.

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar informed reporters that contractor’s men were working on that floor (where the fire broke out) and when the fire brigade officials went there, they found five completely burnt bodies. 2 of them were from UP, 2 from Pune and 1 is from Bihar.

“Our government is trying its best to gather more information. Energy Audit teams have been instructed to conduct fire audit, they will do it tomorrow,” Pawar said.

CEO Adar Poonawalla also expressed condolences for the loss of lives, he tweeted that, “We have just received some distressing updates; upon further investigation, we have learnt that there has unfortunately been some loss of life at the incident. We are deeply saddened and offer our deepest condolences to the family members of the departed.”

“I would like to reassure all governments & the public that there would be no loss of #COVISHIELD production due to multiple production buildings that I had kept in reserve to deal with such contingencies at @SerumInstIndia,” Poonawalla tweeted.

As reported by ANI, state health minister Rajesh Tope said that the plant caught fire due to “some ongoing welding work. “Insulation material, which is inflammable, was kept near the work site. So far, 5 deaths have been reported,”

The fire, which broke out at 2:45 pm on the fourth and fifth floors of the SEZ 3 building in the Serum Institute premises, was brought under control in two hours, police said.