Toxic sludge as ash pond breaches: Essar terms it as an act of ‘sabotage’

Bhopal: An ash pond of a coal-fired power plant run by Essar Group in Singrauli district in Madhya Pradesh has breached causing damages to environment and standing crops in a nearby village, official reports said on Friday.

One of the walls of the ash pond of the thermal power plant set up by Essar Power MP Limited (EPMPL) at Badhoura, nearly 40 km from district headquarters of Singrauli, breached on the night of August 7 leading to contamination of ‘agriculture lands’ in around 5km-area in Kasualal village in the district, official reports said.

The company however described it as an ‘act of sabotage’ by some miscreants.

“Five children were stuck in a house when the toxic sludge from the ash pond flooded the area. They have been rescued.

Around 450 farmers have been affected and standing crops in 198 acres damaged in the mishap”, Singrauli district collector KVS Choudhury told this newspaper on Friday.

According to Mr Choudhury, teams of officers from Central Pollution Control Board (PCB) as well as state PCB visited the affected area to probe the incident and assess damages to environment and standing crops.

“The plant will be made to pay compensation for damages to crops and environment”, he said.

The company issued a statement saying that it is ‘deeply shocked and anguished’ that one of the walls of the ash dyke at its Mahan Power plant in Madhya Pradesh was ‘breached by an act of sabotage’ and the sludge entered the adjoining Kasualal village.

“Our security personnel have spotted 4-5 unidentified people fleeing the site. We have lodged a complaint with the local police in this regard”, it said.

It claimed that the ash entered the non-agriculture land owned by Essar Power.

Mr Choudhury who also visited the spot however said there was no reason to believe that it was an act of sabotage.