Filing a public interest litigation (PIl) in the Odisha High Court, the villagers of Balinga village have demanded an investigation by one Special Investigation Team (SIT) into the overburden dump heap collapse at Kulda open cast mines of MCl’s Vasundhara unit in which as many as thirteen persons had died.
Significantly, the High Court (HC) admitted the petition and served a show cause notice to all opposite parties, including Collector and SP of Sundargarh. In the petition filed by Anil Kumar Khatua , Dulamani Baiga, Jogendra Majhi, Jitendra Majhi, Janmejaya Amat and Muralidhar Panchabhaya (36), all native of Balinga village under Hemgiri police station ,besides praying for a detailed investigation by SIT, consisting of technically competent persons, also prayed the court to intervene in the matter and direct the MCl authorities to pay adequate compensation to the families of the victims and provide employment to at least one member of the victim’s family. The petitioners also appealed the court to give necessary direction to the Director General (Mines Safety) to initiate appropriate action in a bid to ensure no further mishap like this occurs in future.
In their petition, the villagers alleged that the MCl authorities had not followed various safety norms. Quoting the guidelines fixed by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests, while granting environmental clearance to MCl on December 24, 2002, they alleged that the MCl officials did not follow the guidelines, particularly in respect of staking overburden dumps.
“As at least thirteen innocent villagers lost their lives due to slackness of the MCl officials, besides violation of various safety norms and also an underplaying of the incident by both the MCl officials and the district administration, we thought it is a befitting case for a PIl,” said Sundergarh Bar Association secretary Pradeep Mohanty.
“Besides admitting the case, the State HC has also served a show cause notice to all opposite parties on last Monday,” said Mohanty.
Significantly, the State Government had directed an inquiry into the incident by the RDC (North) Pramod Kumar Meherdha. Meanwhile, the RDC has started an inquiry since Thursday.
As many as 30 villagers, including the family members of the victim, had recorded their statements in form of affidavits. They reportedly alleged the callousness of the MCl officials as a reason of the mishap. The MCl and some Government officials also recorded their statements in front of the inquiry committee on Friday.