Chargesheet on Vedanta Chimney disaster case

     Korba, January 5, 2010: Korba police has filed chargesheet against four officials in connection with the collapse of the giant Chimney of Vedanta power plant, in which 40 workmen were killed in Korba, police said today.

     “We have filed the chargesheet in the court of Korba District and Sessions Judge against four officials of two companies yesterday in connection with the collapse of the Chimney on September 23, last year, in which 40 workers were killed and several injured” Korba District Superintendent of Police Ratan Lal Dangi told ChhattisgarhTopNews.Com.

     Vice President and Project In-charge of the 1200 Mega Watt power plant of Vedanta subsidiary BALCO, Viral Mehta, Assistant General Manager Deepak Narang and Project Engineer Anup Mohapatra and Project Manager of Gannon Dunkerley and Company Limited (GDCL) Manoj Sharma have been charged with “culpable homicide not amounting to murder under section 304 of the Indian penal Code and also of Section 34, of Acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention,” Dangi said.

     All the four were arrested on different dates and are currently under the judicial custody for the disaster in the One billion US Dollar 1200 MW power plant of Vedanta’s India subsidiary Bharat Aluminium Company (BALCO) at Korba.

     The GDCL was assigned the task of constructing a 275-metre chimney for the power plant by Chinese group Shandong Electric Power Construction Corporation (SEPCO), a company that bagged the contract from BALCO, and on September 23, the partially built chimney collapsed, burying labourers under tonnes of concrete.

    “Police has also submitted reports in the court from more than one technical institute to dismiss the claim of VEDANTA that the chimney was collapsed due to lightening and bad weather,” Dangi said.

    “We have submitted before the court with annexure that the Chimney was collapsed due to use of sub standard materials.

     “Before and also at the time of construction of the giant Chimney, soil testing was not conducted as per the Indian Standard Code,” he said.

     “Lightening and bad weather was not the reason behind the collapse rather workmanship was poor and also the supervision and monitoring was poor which were responsible for the collapse of the chimney,” said the Police chief.

      Besides recording the statements of about 150 people, during the course of investigation, the police had also sent the samples of the collapsed chimney to the National Council for Cement and Building at Ballabhgarh in northern state of Haryana and also to the National Institute of Technology, at Raipur, and on the basis of their reports prepared the chargesheet, the police said.