Vedanta power plant explosion: Initial government report alleges negligence, FIR against Anil Aggarwal

After the explosion at Vedanta’s power plant in Sakti district of Chhattisgarh, a case of culpable homicide has been registered against 19 people including group chairman Anil Aggarwal.

Sakti District Police says that this action has been taken after prima facie the negligence of the plant management came to light. So far 21 people have died in this accident.

Sakti District Superintendent of Police Prafulla Thakur has said, “In the preliminary investigation report, it is not just a technical accident but the result of serious management negligence. On this basis, the police has registered an FIR against 19 people including Anil Aggarwal.”

Regarding the cause of this accident, the state government has said that according to the preliminary report of the incident, the boiler of the power plant had burst during an attempt to increase the production capacity in a short time.

Ujjwal Gupta, investigating officer of the state government’s Industrial Health and Safety Department, told the BBC, “Initially it can be said that an attempt was being made to increase the production capacity in a short time, due to which the boiler of the power plant burst.”

He has also informed that during the investigation it has come to light that two days before the incident of boiler explosion, some technical problems were being faced in the power plant. But those technical problems were ignored.

We also contacted Vedanta officials regarding the possibility of an accident due to increasing the power generation capacity in a short time, but we could not get any response from them.

15 workers have also been injured in this accident, the condition of many of them is critical.

After this incident, Anil Agarwal had written in the message posted on “Will be done. We will leave no stone unturned to get to the bottom of this matter.”

Here, Vedanta management has announced a compensation of Rs 35 lakh to the families of those killed in the accident.

Apart from this, the state government has announced to give Rs 5 lakh to the family of the deceased and the central government has announced to give Rs 2 lakh.

Earlier on Thursday, Industries and Labor Minister Lakhan Lal Dewangan had met the victims admitted in hospitals.

Regarding the question asked in the investigation report about the negligence of the power plant management, he told BBC, “The matter is being investigated at many levels. The state government has also ordered a magisterial inquiry. Our first priority is to provide all possible help to the victims. I am still going to meet the injured.”

Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Charan Das Mahant and State Congress President Deepak Baij also visited the power plant and took information about the accident from the management.

This under-construction power plant consisting of two units of 600-600 MW capacity of Athena Chhattisgarh Power Limited in Sakti district was acquired by Vedanta Limited Chhattisgarh Thermal Power Plant in July 2022.

Power generation work started in the first unit of the same power plant in July last year, where the accident occurred.

However, this is only the initial investigation report of the government in which it has been said that the boiler of the power plant had burst during an attempt to increase the production capacity in a short time.

But if such a situation exists then why does the possibility of an accident increase?

Manoj Trivedi, an expert on power plants, says that in any thermal power plant, the process of increasing the load is done in a phased manner, so that the pressure, temperature and fuel-air mixture within the boiler remains balanced.

He says, “When the load is increased rapidly in a short period of time, there is sudden additional pressure on the boiler tubes, furnace walls and pressure parts, which increases the risk of internal explosion.”

However, the family members of those killed in this accident allege that ‘two days before the accident, many irregularities were coming to light in the power plant and if attention had been paid to those irregularities, this accident would not have happened.’

Deepak Kumar, brother-in-law of Pappu Kumar, a resident of Sonbhadra, Uttar Pradesh, who died in this accident, reached the hospital early on Wednesday, but he came to know about the body of his family member in the afternoon.

After talking to the co-workers of Pappu Kumar, who worked in the power plant, he alleged that the security arrangements during work were incomplete.

He claimed, “Even after there was news of a disturbance in the power plant, the work of the plant was not stopped. If it had been stopped on time, this accident would not have happened.”

Social activist and Aam Aadmi Party spokesperson Priyanka Shukla has demanded a serious investigation into the matter.

He said, “In 2009, Vedanta’s chimney was being built in Korba, in which 40 workers were killed due to negligence. That was the biggest industrial accident after the formation of the state. After that, now in Sakti also, 20 workers have died due to the negligence of the company. If such cases were strictly investigated and action was taken against the culprits, then the workers would not have lost their lives.”

In 2010, Vedanta Resources had the highest number of 67 deaths among all the companies listed on the London Stock Exchange.

In this background, the incident of Korba chimney collapse in Chhattisgarh also came to light, in which 40 laborers died. Due to these deaths not being reported, the British Safety Council withdrew the safety award given to the company.

Published by Collective Newsroom for the BBC