Part- II of CORPORATE MANSLAUGHTER ! ! ! VEDANTA’S KILLER CHIMNEY at Korba Part - II

CORPORATE MANSLAUGHTER ! ! !

VEDANTA’S KILLER CHIMNEY at Korba

Part –II

Rescue operations or Hiding Operations ?????

By Pravin Patel

Workers from BALCO’s other plant were amongst the firsts to rush to rescue their fellow workers. Those workers who were having their duties in the night shift, more particularly those engaged in the Chimney construction rushed in on hearing the news to rescue their fellow workers. However, security staff of BALCO prevented them at the gate, but they made their forceful entry even at the cost of entering in tussle with the security staff.

Hundreds of residents of the area, many social activists from various NGOs and trade union workers from other industrial Plants joined the rescue work immediately who worked day and night even without food. National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), South Eastern coal Fields Ltd (SECL), Lenco Amarkantak Power Plant (LAPP) joined with their men and heavy earth moving machineries. By this time police and district administration also reached to the site. There was chaos all around.
























All these people worked day and night in their effort to rescue any one who may be alive. Few persons who are injured had been rushed to hospital. It was a very big task for those who were involved in the rescue work. After two days. An expert team of rescuers with their specialized equipments also reached the site from neighboring state of Odisha. This gave a speed to the rescue work but all hopes of finding any one alive were almost lost. Even the dead bodies scavenged from the rubble were mutilated and in a very bad shape. Even there were scenes of dogs searching human body parts from rubble that was thrown on the ring road. A dog was shown on a local electronic media running away with a portion of the lower leg of a human body.




















Immediately after the collapse of Chimney most of those workers who were either in the night shift or survived the tragedy narrowly, as they left the chimney just before minutes of its collapse for some other reasons were in great shock. Some of the survivors who were near by the chimney and were rushing to safety were also trapped, who have sustained injuries and were treated.
Almost all the migratory workers who were engaged in the construction work left for their home states, out of fear, and panic. Some of them have stated that they were asked to go back by some persons whom they believed to be the agents of the company.

BALCO Chimney collapse has not only shocked the people all over the state of Chhattisgarh but also raised hundreds of questions in the minds of people on how safety standards are ignored or compromised in the industrial sector of the state.

Mr. Nanki Ram Kanwar, Home Minister in the Government of Chhattisgarh, while visiting the accident site, announced compensation of Rs. One Lakh to be paid by the state government to the families who have lost their bread earner in this huge tragedy. Chief Minister Mr. Raman Singh, Home Minister and local MLA Mr.Nanki Ram Kanwar, Another senior minister Mr. Brij Mohan Agarwal, Former Chief Minister Shri Ajit Jogi are all the leading politicians who visited the accident site.









Mr. Raman Singh, stated at the accident site stated that it was unfortunate that the company officials were missing from the rescue work, which would be probed in the judicial investigation ordered by the state government. Shri Ajit Jogi leveled serious charges on the company and wanted a high power independent probe. He also stated that due to poor quality of construction, chimney has collapsed in which much more than 41 are feared dead. He stated that when a similar chimney was constructed at a cost of Rs. 90 Crore before about five years, now when the rates of all the materials have more than doubled, he asked, what is the secret of doing the similar work now at only Rs. 60 Crore?

In the mean time, Mr. B. K. Srivastava, AGM of BALCO and Chief of Corporate communication with whom we met on 29th September, informed us that on the orders of the District Collector Mr. Ashok Agarwal rescue work has finally stopped at about 12 o’clock in the afternoon of 28th September, 2009, since the ground level was reached, as such they felt there are no chances to retrieve any further dead body. In all 41 Forty one disfigured bodies of contracted workers were retrieved so far from the crash site.

When we asked for the lists of persons who were working in and around chimney in the day shift he regretted that there are no records available with him. When we asked for a copy of the lists of Forty One whose bodies were retrieved, it was also not available with him nor could he provide us the addresses where they dispatched the dead bodies.

However, this does not match with the statements of the eye witnesses and others. All of them are of the firm opinion that there were about 150 workers at the site when the chimney collapsed but the dead bodies recovered are only 41. The Chimney has caved in to the ground, which is believed to be due to foundation cracking down.

Under the circumstances, why rescue work was not continued below the ground? Life of poor in India is very cheap has been demonstrated at Vedanta’s Balco chimney collapse.

Shri Vinod Sharma, General Secretary of the worker’s union, feared that the number of dead could cross 100. His estimate was based on testimonies from union members near the scene of the accident, who said workers were sheltering from heavy rain in and around the structure when it collapsed at about 3:45 pm (1015 Greenwich Mean Time)
"Only nine people who are in hospital are alive. The others are dead," he said.

Police and government officials said they were having difficulties establishing exactly how many people were buried because the company has been unable to say how many contractors were working on the site. Mr. Vivek Sharma, a senior police officer who is investigating the disaster, said they were looking for several officials involved in the chimney construction who appear to have absconded. "We are trying to trace them to get a list of people who were working at the site," he said. The rescue effort has been hampered by the lack of a reliable employee list, which has resulted in widely differing estimates for the number of workers who might have been trapped in the collapse.. He said "We have compiled a list of up to 60 people who are missing. Some of these people are in the list of those dead but we have no way of knowing how many were actually working there when the accident happened.

Controversies created by BALCO officials:

1. Though the massive tragedy that took away lives of many poor workers, BALCO tried to shed off their responsibility by giving it a shape of a natural disaster and not the men made tragedy.

2. Even though officials of BALCO, SEPCO and GDCL had fled away from the accident site, the moment chimney collapsed. However, they did not waste any opportunity to show smart faces showing as if they are very busy with the rescue and relief work.

Though there are no controversies in what happened and how the rescue work was done, BALCO created controversies by selling the falsehood. As such, it is necessary to address the same.

Mr. Srivastava, PRO (BALCO) also tried to sell us the story that due to lighting and heavy rain the Chimney could have collapsed. When questioned, how he can say so, he stated that he has never seen such heavy rains and huge lighting in his entire life till now. He stated that they had invited one Mr. Jagdish Prasad, who is an expert in Civil engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, (IIT) Roorkee who is also of the opinion that due to lightning and heavy rains, the Chimney could have collapsed. He refused that there was any sub standard material or technical fault in designing the Chimney.

This was in confirmation to the statement of Mr. Gunjan Gupta, CEO, BALCO at Korba, who immediately after the Chimney collapsed had stated similarly. Even he issued advertisements in local newspapers that due to heavy rains and lightning, the chimney collapsed is a natural disaster. Prof. S.N.Sinha of IIT Delhi also shared near similar views in his three page report claimed that the Chimney fell due to lightning.

"A probable reason for the incident appears to be the excessive rains and lightning," said a statement from Vedanta Resources plc..

END OF PART II

Note: Part III is “Face Saving Exercise of Vedanta’s Balco falls flat on its face”

Dislclaimer- Most of the photos courtesy Mr. Abdul Aslam of Korba. Any photo that is copy written or otherwise will be withdrawn if brought to the notice.