Part- III of CORPORATE MANSLAUGHTER VEDANTA’S KILLER CHIMNEY at Korba Part –III

Face Saving Exercise of Vedanta’s Balco falls flat on its face

CORPORATE MANSLAUGHTER

VEDANTA’S KILLER CHIMNEY at Korba

Part –III

By Pravin Patel


In this massive tragedy resulted in loss of lives of many poor workers, caused in the manmade tragedy burying many workers alive in the rubble of the under construction chimney that caved in and collapsed after it was constructed up to a height of 253 meters. first of its kind in the entire country so far at Vedanta Resources plc owned Balco, it is expected that all the three corporations BALCO, SEPCO & GDCL who are duty bound to behave as a responsible corporate citizens have failed to do so. Though it was required that the officials of all the three companies should have stayed at site and put in all their resources to rescue the workers from the rubble, they preferred to fled away is the proof of their irresponsible corporate social behaviors.

On the contrary, they tried to save their skin, even at the cost of selling falsehood and playing blame game, particularly by Vedanta group of companies. 89 member Chinese staff of Shandong Electric Power Construction Corporation (SEPCO), China, even made their best effort to escape from the country, which ultimately failed as the Immigration authorities across the countries were already alerted that a number of Chinese employees had fled Korba. Officials at airports were asked not to allow these 89 Chinese to leave the country. Four Chinese engineers who made attempts to flee through IGI airport at New Delhi and later again few more made futile attempt to leave the country from Kolkatta on flight to Singapore were failed by the vigilant immigration officials. None of the officials of GDCL were in sight at Korba with whom we could talk.

False hood of selling the theory of “Excessive rains and Lightning”

Though none of the officials of all the three corporations were seen at site when it was needed the most, Balco tried to show case as if they are very busy with relief and rescue work. It makes us laugh at their repeated efforts to cover up the crime committed by them by their act of criminal negligence in carelessly constructing the ill fated chimney that killed many poor workers. Story of “Excessive rains and lightning as the cause of tragedy” was not only created instantly but all out efforts were made to show case the manmade tragedy as that of a natural calamity right from Vedanta Resources plc, Sterlite Industries at Mumbai and also at Korba by Balco.

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

As per the news published in The Hindu, the very next day of the chimney collapsed at Korba, Sterlite Industries, a part of Vedanta Group issued a statement to the National Stock Exchange at Mumbai - “A probable reason for the incident appears to be the excessive rains and lightning at Korba,'' and also it says further that “The exact cause for this will, however, be ascertained only after a detailed investigation is concluded''



But much before the investigation the theory of "Excessive rains and lightning" was also confirmed which is seen in the statement of Mr. Gunjan Gupta, CEO, BALCO at Korba, who after the Chimney collapsed stated similarly. Even he went one step ahead by putting in advertisements that were published in local newspapers that heavy rains and lightning caused chimney collapsed and is a natural disaster.

Mr. B.K. Srivastava, Chief of Corporate Communication of BALCO also tried to sell us the story of lighting and heavy rain. On being questioned, he stated that he has never seen such heavy rains and lighting in his entire life as he saw on that day. When asked that there are allegations of using sub standard material and poor quality of workmanship has caused the tragedy, he denied it and stated they believe in quality of workmanship.

Controversies created by BALCO to sale falsehood from day one.

He even tried to convince us with the opinion of one Mr. Jagdish Prasad, an expert in Civil engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, (IIT) Roorkee, who visited the site on their invitation. Mr. Srivatatava stated to us that even that civil engineering expert is also of the opinion that due to lightning and heavy rains, the Chimney could have collapsed. Later it came out that Prof. S.N.Sinha of IIT Delhi also shared similar views in his three page report

FACE SAVING EXERCISE TO ESCAPE PENAL ACTION

Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) Delhi and Roorkee both are premier institute of India having a very high reputation. Their names have been drawn into a controversy over its civil engineering experts allegedly drawing inference — much before completion of any scientific studies — that "lightning" was the cause of Bharat Aluminum Company Limited (BALCO) power plant's chimney collapse.

Engineers from other companies who were at the spot engaged in the rescue work are of the opinion that instead of open cast method, pile foundation seems to have been done which has caved in. Experts from other power plants like NTPC and State Electricity Board have also stated that they have never heard of lightning striking down the industrial chimneys any where in the country. They are of the opinion that insufficient depth of the foundation, design failure, inadequacies in concrete ration, reinforcement and not doing the curing are also stated to be major reasons.

Korba S.P. Mr. Dangi is stated to have issued notices to BALCO and GDCL to produce the reports prepared by their respective consultants. Notice was also being issued to IIT Delhi, asking it to explain when and where they collected the samples and to explain the basis on which its expert drew such an inference. Later it has come out that Prof. Jagdish Prasad visited the site as the consultant for BALCO and Prof. Sinha as the consultant for GDCL. Professor Dr S N Sinha’s three-page report draws inference on the basis of information supplied by his client, that the chimney collapsed due to lightning,” Earlier, Professor Jagdish Prasad had also come to a similar conclusion at Korba. While Prof Sinha could not be contacted for comment, Prof Prasad is stated to have said, “There may be other reasons, including poor quality material and design problems. Process of testing and analysis of samples collected from the site are still on. It could take about three months to reach a final conclusion.”

Who are these Prof. Jagdish Prasad and Prof. S.N.Sinha?

Prof Jagdish Prasad Jain is a civil engineer, working as a freelancer, visited the accident site as a consultant for BALCO, where as Prof Sinha was a consultant for M/s GDCL.

Korba SP Ratanlal Dangi wrote to the Director of the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee asking him to furnish all documents and other details on the basis of which its civil engineering expert Prof. Jagdish Prasad made a public statement that the Chimney collapsed
“due to lightning” and the other chimney was in perfect shape.” “When police investigation was progressing, stated Korba S.P. Mr. Dangi.

While IIT Delhi Professor Dr S N Sinha’s three-page report draws inference on the basis of information supplied by his client that the chimney collapsed due to lightning, IIT Roorkee Professor Jagdish Prasad also shares similar conclusion. While Prof Sinha could not be contacted for comment, Prof Prasad is stated to have said, “There may be other reasons, including poor quality material and design problems. Process of testing and analysis of samples collected from the site are still on. It could take about three months to reach a final conclusion.”
Bubble of falsehood finally bursts.

No lightning strike, it was careless work

States the Report of National Institute of Technology, Raipur.

State Authorities had entrusted National Institute of Technology, Raipur (NIT) the task to investigate the matter of reasons of collapse of chimney. NIT completed its investigations and submitted its report in the first week of January, 2010, exactly after 103 days of the collapse of the ill fated chimney. In its investigation report, prepared by four civil engineering experts at NIT, they dismissed the theory that lightning could have caused the chimney collapse at the BALCO plant. The report also says that no melted rebars were found at the site and postmortem reports of victims did not indicate death due to burning.

In its conclusion, the experts said the soil investigation had not been carried out properly and careless, poor construction practice and workmanship were noticed in the construction of piles. “There has been a construction blunder in pile and pile cap connection. Improper cement content in the concrete mix and non-availability of proper instruments for temperature measurement were also noticed,”

The actions of BALCO can be described as a face saving exercise to put a veil on their faces by labeling the manmade tragedy or to bluntly say, the corporate manslaughter for which they are directly responsible but to save their face and escape to show off to what they did at for the world major Vedanta and to escape from the responsibilities from the consequences of the chimney collapse. The expert committee of NIT Raipur has held all three companies -- BALC0, GDCL and China's Shandong Electric Power Construction Corporation (SEPCO) -- prima facie responsible.

Mr. Vivek Sharma, Police officer who investigates the matter had earlier stated that a full investigation would be carried out, including the questioning of senior Balco officials, with the possibility of criminal charges if there was evidence of negligence.

On 4th January, 2010, Korba Police filed 1,000-page charge sheet in the court of Judicial Magistrate Saroj Nandadas, named four top company officials and engineers as accused in the state's worst industrial accident. While Three Balco officials, One GDCL official were already in judicial custody, three Chinese staffs of SEPCO were also arrested after the filing of charge sheet.

END OF PART - III

Note: Part IV / V will cover Judicial custody of the officials charge sheeted and related matter and also our visit to the families of those who died in the tragedy” & unanswered questions.

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.