TDP national president N. Chandrababu Naidu has demanded immediate closure of LG Polymers factory in Visakhapatnam. Later, the factory should be shifted to some other place as health and lives of people are more important, he said.
Addressing the media on Friday, Mr. Naidu sought to know how the LG Polymers was allowed to operate during the nationwide lockdown period though it was not into production of essential commodities. The government needs to examine why the factory management failed to take necessary precautionary measures to prevent technical error, if any. Another lapse was the failure of alarm system. Why it was failed, he pointed out.
The TDP leader said that Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has reacted 'so casually' to the incident which claimed many lives. The victims should be kept in mind but not the company management while reacting to the incident, he said.
Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy's reference to LG Polymers as a multi-national firm in the present context was unwarranted and his meeting with the 'accused' company executives was objectionable. The immediate focus should be on fixing whether it was a human error or a technical snag, he said.
‘Petty cases’
Mr. Naidu said that petty cases filed against the factory management under bailable Sections such as 278, 284 and 285 of the IPC would not suffice. If it were such a small incident why National Green Tribunal ordered LG Polymers to deposit ₹50 crore immediately? Why Prime Minister Narendra Modi has constituted a high-level committee? Why the High Court has taken up a suo motu case?, he asked.
Stating that despite his long years of experience in the past as Chief Minister, Mr. Naidu said that he had never come across one single incident of styrene-related tragedy which was why he had talked to four to five scientists as part of Global Forum for Sustainable Transformation (GFST) but still had no conclusive information on clear recovery measures. He deplored that while the TDP was creating right kind of awareness, the YSRCP leaders were indulging in cheap allegations obviously to cover up their inefficiencies and failures in tackling tragedies like gas leakage and coronavirus.
