Amaravati: Negligence led to gas leak, says Goutham Reddy

Amaravati: Industries minister Mekapati Goutham Reddy on Thursday expressed concern over the gas leak incident at LG Polymers resulting in the death of many people and affecting many others. He said that LG was a reputed company and it was unfortunate that such an incident had taken place. Once the control and containment part was over the government would look into aspects as to how the accident took place. He said the government had given permission for the company to start functioning but had issued clear guidelines and protocol to be followed. It seems that there might have been some breach somewhere.

Goutham Reddy said that he would have to discuss with the management of the company to ascertain who was responsible for the accident and how it took place. "A responsible company like LG should have taken extra precautions," the minister said. He said the volume of the gas leaked was not much and hence there will be no further harm to human lives.

He said their focus was now on providing relief to the affected. "We will study long-term effects of this on the surrounding villages and announce relief measures for the affected," he said.

The minister earlier tweeted that the ministry was in touch with Visakhapatnam district collectorate and management of LG polymers. He said the situation was being brought under control. "We have instructed concerned authorities to take required measures on a war footing. Evacuation of villagers is underway. I request citizens not to panic and cooperate with authorities," he said. The minister said a dedicated team will provide all the required assistance. A team from the industries department was on site, manning rescue operations.

He a help desk was set up in the office of the general manager of the department of industries in Visakhapatnam with contact numbers 7997952301, 8919239341 and 9701197069

Director general of police D Gautam Sawang said the police received the information about the gas leak through dial 100 in the early hours of Thursday. "Quick response teams were deployed soon after the outbreak and people were evacuated to safe places," he said.

National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), Andhra Pradesh Special Police (APSP) and nearby police were deployed to rescue and shift people to safe places.