A year after chimney collapse,Balco probe remains muddled

The day when the workers in the Vedanta-controlled Bharat Aluminium Company Limited were commemorating the first anniversary of the chimney disaster, the company was busy engaging the judicial commission constituted to probe the incident.

While the chimney disaster that claimed 41 lives in Balco's under-construction power plant in Korba completed one year today, the company and the Chinese firm SEPCO filed a petition in the Chhattisgarh High Court on Wednesday against the one-member judicial commission headed by Sandeep Bakshi.

The Balco and Sepco filed a petition in the High Court yesterday seeking documents that the commission had collected, member secretary of the commission P Nihalani told Business Standard.

The state government had constituted the commission to probe the biggest industrial accident in the state. The under-construction chimney at Balco's power plant that Delhi-based Gannon Dunkerley and Company Ltd (GDCL) had been constructing collapsed on September 23 last year. 41 contract labourers died in the mishap.

The GDCL had bagged the contract from Chinese firm Shandong Electric Power Construction Corporation (SEPCO) that had been awarded the work to build the 1200-Mw power plant. The commission was supposed to submit its report in three months, but it was given six month's extension as alleged non-cooperation from the companies concerned had been stalling the proceedings.

The companies had earlier sought the documents from the commission. "Since the documents were meant for our references and were the property of the commission, we refused to give it against which Balco and Sepco moved the High Court," Nihalani said.

The commission had started the cross-examination of the witnesses. Now, the proceedings would be affected following the petition filed in the High Court.

Nihalani said they would wait for the court order to resume the proceedings.

Meanwhile, the way the Balco management commemorated the first anniversary of chimney disaster has come under sharp criticism from the trade unions.

The management had issued a circular asking the officials and workers to observe silence for two minutes at their respective work places and not to attend any programme, General Secretary of Aluminium Kamgaar Sangh B L Netam said.