Many expressed serious concern over the fatal accident at LG Polymers Visakhapatnam factory and asked the high-committee formed by the government to finalise a policy to prevent recurrence of such incidents.
During an interactive meet held by committee headed by Special Chief Secretary Neerabh Kumar Prasad, representatives from various organisations sought concrete measures to stop such incidents and initiate stringent action against the officials responsible for fatal accidents.
Solid waste researcher N. Kalidas said the Inspectorate of Factories was supposed to issue guidelines, during the lockdown period, for maintenance of boiler and storage vessels of toxic elements and arrange passes to the manpower as well as to ensure the compliance.
With the critical conditions of the operations and storage at the plant, the government was not supposed to permit habitats in 3-5 km radius of the plant. Inspector of Factories and PCB have missed to invoke this strict guideline from time to time, and alerting government on the happenings as well as consequences.
NGO Nature founder S. Balaraju said they would start a pilot project on interventions and strategies required post-tank leakage with the support of Unicef, UNDP and the district administration.
Vizagapatam Chamber of Commerce and Industry honorary secretary G. Veeramohan said any facility handling hazardous material and poses risk, must impart better training to its skilled work force. Special training is required, and workforce must be compensated adequately.
He said preventive maintenance should be the norm and not the exception. Culturally, having an easy-going approach to safety could lead to more accidents, he said.
