Rescue workers waited with masks, stretchers and sheets for bodies as heavy earth moving equipment tried to clear debris of a giant chimney that collapsed Wednesday at the Korba power plant site of the Bharat Aluminium Company (BALCO), killing at least 25 people and trapping many others.

Hopes of finding survivors in the mountain of debris have slowly begun to fade. More than 24 hours after the 150 m-high chimney collapsed, civil and police officials were still in the process of compiling a list of missing people. Until this evening, only about one-fourth of the debris could be cleared. With very little space for movement, heavy earth moving machines were trying to remove concrete structures while gas-cutters were being used to cut through mangled I-beams, angles and iron rods.

“We will be to say anything about the total number of casualties only after the debris around the bottom of the chimney is cleared. It may take one or two days,” District Collector Ashok Agrawal told The Indian Express.

The police, meanwhile, have registered a case against the BALCO and DGCL management under IPC Sections 304 and 34 —culpable homicide not amounting to murder and common intention. Tempers ran high when some BALCO officials reached the spot, accompanying Chhattisgarh Home Minister Nankiram Kanwar. Chief Minister Raman Singh, who also visited the site, said the district administration and others were engaged in rescue operations and his government would look into complaints later.

“I don’t think there is need for an inquiry by the CBI as a judicial probe has already been ordered,” Raman Singh told reporters. He said the state would make arrangements for sending bodies of the victims to their home towns, mainly in Bihar and Jharkhand.

... contd.