Arrested Chinese engineers hospitalised (Second Lead)

RAIPUR - Three Chinese engineers, arrested in Chhattisgarh for alleged culpability in a chimney crash at the Balco power plant in which 41 workers were killed last year, were Tuesday shifted to hospital even as the issue of the large number of Chinese working in India once again hit the headlines.

The engineers were employed with Shandong Electric Power Construction Corporation (SEPCO) that was building a 1,200 MW thermal power plant in Korba town, about 240 km from Raipur, for Vedanta Resources Plc-controlled Bharat Aluminium Company (Balco).

“The engineers complained of some health problems Tuesday and were taken from the district jail to a district hospital, where doctors were conducting their necessary check-up,” Korba Superintendent of Police Ratanlal Dangi told IANS.

The engineers — Shandong’s project in-charge Woo Chunan, and two other civil engineers — were Monday arrested under Sections 304 of the Indian Penal Code (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and were presented to a local court in Korba. The court rejected their bail plea and sent them to the district jail.

The under-construction chimney that was designed to be 275 metres tall came crashing midway in September last year. It was being built by Gannon Dunkerley and Company Ltd (GDCL) that had bagged the chimney construction order from SEPCO. SEPCO brought about 80 Chinese workers in the project, most of who had to return following a diplomatic fracas with Beijing over the reported misuse of business visas by Chinese working in India.

Minister of State for Home Ajay Maken told the Lok Sabha that 69,084 Chinese were issued business visas in 2008 against 58,406 in 2007. And at least 32,700 Chinese had been issued business visas till June 2009.

Later, Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor expressed concern over some Chinese visa holders misusing the visas to work in India.

He had explained at a seminar in Kolkata that business visas were intended for business visitors for setting up of business office, overseeing an ongoing project, but it was not intended to substitute an employment visa which were given to technically qualified persons to assist projects of Chinese companies.

“If unskilled workers are coming with these visas, they are taking the jobs of Indian unskilled workers,” he said.

Chinese workers were forced to return to their country in the last week of September after India’s new visa policy came into effect. Under the policy, Chinese were not allowed to work in the country on business visas but could do so only on employment visas.

China on its part voiced concern over New Delhi’s insistence that only those with employment visa can work in India. It asked for a “special policy” for its labourers to help businesses of the two sides finish the large number of ongoing projects in India, many of which got stalled because of the sudden exodus of Chinese workers.