Villagers not willing to return home for fear of another round of gas leak.
Even as a high-level panel of officials led by special chief secretary of Andhra Pradesh has begun its job of fixing accountability behind the horrifying styrene gas leak from the LG Polymers near Visakhapatnam which claimed 12 lives and injured around 500 people on Thursday wee hours, its management admitted disaster could be due to neglect of plant during the lockdown. The plant closed on 23 March was supposed to restart on 7 May as the government gave permission for resumption of operations under the lockdown relaxations.
Several agencies—Andhra Pradesh police, National Green Tribunal (NGT), Central Pollution Control Board and the National Human Rights Commission—have commenced separate investigation into the tragedy that shook the entire nation. Visakhapatnam police have registered cases against the company management under IPC sections for criminal negligence, leading to human deaths.
A high-level panel led by AP special chief secretary Neerabh Kumar and comprising industries secretary Karikalavalan, Visakhapatnam district collector Vinay Chand and AP Pollution Control Board member secretary Vivek Yadav and Visakhapatnam police commissioner R.P. Meena visited the LG Polymers factory as well as the nearby villages affected by the gas leak on Friday. The NGT has ordered the management of the company to deposit Rs 50 crore immediately, apart from commencing a probe into the mishap. After Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday chaired a review meeting in Delhi with Home Minister Amit Shah and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and other officials, the Centre is in touch with South Korea on the gas leak disaster.
Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy who visited Visakhapatnam on Thursday announced an ex-gratia of Rs one crore to each of the deceased families and Rs 10 lakh to those who are severely injured and hospitalised. Other injured and those who suffered all types of damage or loss of cattle etc, too, would be paid ex-gratia. However, the Andhra Pradesh government is keen on fixing responsibility of the disaster on the company management, besides extracting proper compensation from it on the lines of the one secured from the Union Carbide’s company after the Bhopal gas tragedy. The government is also serious about lapses, if any, on the part of AP Pollution Control Board, for failing to enforce regulatory norms.
LG Polymers India Private Limited, a unit of LG Chem, a subsidiary of South Korean giant LG group, too, set up its own technical engineering probe to find out where and what went wrong which led to one of the worst industrial mishaps in the history of India, reminding the world of the Bhopal gas tragedy 36 years ago.
However, LG Polymers general manager Mohan Rao attributed the industrial accident to the impact of Covid induced lockdown since 22 March. “We have never faced this kind of situation (shutting down of the plant for 46 days. We couldn’t ensure proper maintenance of the tanks which store this hazardous styrene gas during the lockdown,” he told media persons on Friday. Rao led a team of engineers from the company that called on Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy at the airport and explained his version on the disaster. According to the company representatives, the disaster was a consequence of prolonged negligence of the plant which stores hazardous styrene gas due to absence of manpower because of the lockdown.
The styrene gas was to be kept in liquid form at a temperature of around 18 degrees Celsius and it needs constant cooling of the tanks that store the gas. The two tanks of the factory can store up to 2,500 tonnes of styrene, but before the lockdown, there was only about 1,800 tonnes. At least 300 tonnes of it is understood to have turned to evaporation due to heating.
When the workers tried to start the plant at around 2.30 am, on 7 May, after the easing of lockdown, some of the gas in the form of evaporation leaked out of the upper part of the tanks. Nobody at the plant noticed its leak for about an hour, until some people raised an alarm over people falling unconscious on streets followed by a cloud of leaked gas.
The plant’s management also was at pains to explain the failure in ringing of siren which is supposed to be on in the event of any industrial disaster. This too was blamed on lack of upkeep during the 45 days of lockdown. The plant engineers plugged the leaking tanks only after the local police alerted them on the accident at around 3.45 am.
AP Industries Minister Mekapati Gautham Reddy, however, disputed the management’s version, saying that there were clear instructions to all industries, especially those which deal with hazardous chemicals, to follow all safety norms even during the lockdown period. “There are strict guidelines, but LG Polymers in this case has dangerously neglected to follow the protocols,” said the minister. Specialised commandoes of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) which came from Pune on Friday cleared the entire 5 km radius of LG Polymers factory and stated that the current air quality here was well within the normal limits.
NDRF unit of Visakhapatnam on Thursday checked every house of RR Venkatapuram and cluster of 5-6 affected villages and declared them safe. However, most of the villagers are not willing to return to their homes out of fear of another round of gas leak in the next two days. “We will allow them to stay in the hospitals or rehabilitation camps till Sunday afternoon and provide them with food and other essentials. After that they can go home,” said Vinay Chand on Friday afternoon. The LG company took over this polymers manufacturing firm from United Breweries Limited in 1988, then called Hindustran Polymeres, that was originally started in 1961.
LG Polymers produces polysterene, expandable polysterene and engineering class sterene here for its other appliances all over the world. Styrene gas is an important raw material for its products.