On April 10, 2020, dyke — boundary wall of a water body — of a fly ash pond of Reliance’s Sasan Ultra Mega Power Project in Singrauli breached. After the dyke collapsed, fly ash – ash produced in small dark flecks by the burning of powdered coal – from the power plant spilled into several acres of agricultural fields.

On April 16, the Madhya Pradesh Pollution Control Board has asked the Reliance subsidiary to pay a fine of Rs 10 crore. It has also asked the company to clear the ash that had spilled into the fields nearby. It has further added that it will order closure of the plant if the company fails to pay the fine or clear the ash.

The company has also served to notice to AK Singh, president of the Sasan Power plant, Sachin Mohapatra, the vice-president and vice-chairman Dr Amitosh Verma.

Talking about the latest development, Supreme Court lawyer and environmentalist Ashwini Kumar Dubey, said: “The fine is negligible. Many such incidents have happened in the past. The companies and the managers have gotten away by paying a negligible fine. The company should have been asked to pay a fine of Rs 500 crore and a non-bailable warrant should have been issued again the managers.”

AK Singh, the plant in charge, has said: “We have been given 15 days. We will take a decision after consulting our technical experts.” 

They were not supposed to be there on that fateful day

Eight people, including a labourer working with the plant, got swept away. The tragedy is that seven of these eight people belonged to the same family.

Twenty-eight-year old Nandlal’s mother Kespati (45) and sister Rina Kumari luckily survived and are in serious condition at Nehru Shatabdi Hospital. Bodies of his brother-in-law Dinesh Sahu (35) and his nephew Abhishek (8) have been recovered, but his sister-in-law Chunkumari (27), another nephew, Ankit (3) and niece Seema Kumari (9) are still missing.

Talking about what happened that day and how his entire family came in the grip of this tragedy, Nandlal, who lives about 100 metres from the ash dam, said: “My nephew had been unwell. He was undergoing treatment at the Nehru Shatabdi Hospital. A day before, I had been there to see him. When he was discharged from the hospital on Friday (April 10), I spoke to my brother-in-law and insisted he came with me. My sister had not been home for a long time. My brother-in-law had refused, but I persisted since I had a holiday and thought I would play with nephew.”

All of them reached home at about 12 in the afternoon. After bathing, the family relaxed a bit. “At about 4 pm, I came out along with my brother-in-law as he had to leave. My sister followed. At that moment, there was a loud noise. We are used to such thuds as our house is close to the dam. But my sister noticed that the dam had breached and water was gushing out. We began to flee. My sister and brother-in-law went in to fetch my nephew. My sister-in-law rushed in to get her children. I started running with my wife and mother. The other followed. My mother couldn’t catch up with us. We all kept running for about 2 kms in the opposite direction and waited there long. We were hopeful of others surviving, but when we returned, everything had been washed away. Two hours later, when my sister and mother were rescued, it looked as if they were dead already, but they were breathing when we took them to the hospital.”

On the day of the incident, Nandlal’s elder brother Bhaiyya Ram Shah and father Ram Baran Shah had been away to work in the fields. Bhaiyya Ram also works as a daily wager with the Reliance Power plant. There are about 500 houses in the village.

“This was the gravest mistake of my life,” said Nandlal, adding, “I will not believe anything till I get to see the bodies of my nephew, niece and sister-in-law. But they would have hardly survived looking at what we have witnessed. That is why I have not brought the body of my nephew home from the post-mortem house. Once all of their bodies are traced, I would cremate them together.”

When we called Nandal on the afternoon of April 11, he was cremating his brother-in-law. He said he would call back. When we called him on April 12, he said: “I am displaced. Half of my land had gone to the power plant. There was leakage in the dam since long. For this, we had even sat on dharna, but no one had listened to us.”

Chotey Lal Shah, a neighbour who works at the power plant with Nandal, said: “Three houses have been completely washed away. This dam is wrongly placed. The ash dam for Sasan Power Dam is actually situated at a distance of 2 kms from the village. After Nandlal’s land was acquired, his family stayed on the remaining part of it.”

The rest of the missing people could not be traced till the news was written.

A magisterial enquiry has been ordered

There will be a magisterial enquiry into the ash dam incident at Singrauli. For this, District Magistrate KVS Chaudhary has appointed additional magistrate BK Pandey as the investigating officer and has sought reply within three days by issuing show cause notice to the chief executive officer of Sasan Power plant, AK Singh.

Soon after the incident, the district magistrate had said in his statement that the company is responsible for the mishap and stringent action will be taken against it. In this order, he ordered a magisterial inquiry on Sunday, which will have to be submitted within 45 days. The collector has stated that the investigation into the incident would be based on these points:

1. In what circumstances did the ash dam breakdown at the Reliance Sasan Power Project take place and who is responsible for this incident?
2. Was the broken ash dam of Reliance Sasan Power Project constructed in accordance with the prescribed norms and quality? If yes, what is then the cause of ash dam breakdown?
3. If the construction was not done in accordance with the quality, who is responsible for substandard construction?
4. Suggestions will be sought regarding steps that may be taken to avoid such incidents in future.

The District Collector of Singrauli, KVS Chaudhary, has sought an answer within three days by issuing show cause notice to the chief executive officer of Sasan Power, AK Singh. The district magistrate had earlier issued a show cause notice to the plant management, but no action has been taken, an explanation for this lapse has also been sought.

Madhya Pradesh Pollution Control Board gets into action

Several cattle were also reported to have perished in the incident. At the same time, several acres of crop have also been damaged. The dam has released poisonous ash which has spread over several kilometres. In this regard, the regional officer of the Madhya Pradesh Pollution Control Board, Bhopal, RS Parihar told Gaon Connection: “Presently, we have collected the samples. How much pollution is caused due to this, what may be the damage-it will all be known only after the report comes. Nothing can be said at the moment.”

Bodies not recovered even on the third day

Two bodies were found late night on Friday, the day of the mishap. Thereafter, the teams of the National Disaster Response Force) and the State Disaster Response Force from Varanasi on Saturday had also come, but failed to recover the remaining three bodies. Later, on Sunday, the police had also launched a search operation with the help of local people but did not succeed.