Judicial Commission appointed for BALCO Chimney mishap

     Raipur, October 13, 2009: Raipur District and Sessions Judge Sandeep Bakshi was today appointed as the head of the one-man Judicial Commission to probe the September 23 incident in BALCO, in which one of its chimney collapsed killing huge number of people in Korba district.

     The Commission would give its report within three months from the date of notification, a state government communication said here today.

     Fixing the terms and reference for the Judicial Commission, it said, the Commission would probe on six points, including how and when the incident took place and what was the reasons for the incident, in which scores of people were killed.

     Who were responsible for the collapse of the Chimney, whether proper standardization were adopted to maintain quality of works of the Chimney or not, and if it were not maintained than who were responsible for that. And how to check occurrence of such incidents in future, were the points on which the Commission would study.

     Additional Collector Korba, P L Nihlani is made the Secretary of the Commission.

     The 178 metre long Chimney collapsed on September 23 in which at least 100 labourers were killed trade union leaders claimed when the Government said only 42 workers were killed.

     The Chief Minister Dr Raman Singh had promised a judicial probe into the incident and declared Rs one lakh to the deceased families after visiting the spot the very next day.