Visakhapatnam: 2 killed in Parawada Pharma City mishap

Visakhapatnam: Even before the villagers of RR Venkatapuram recovered from the shock of LG Polymers gas leak tragedy in which 12 persons died and hundreds fell sick, a similar incident occurred at Sainor Life Sciences Private Limited in JN Parawada Pharma City in Visakhapatnam late on Monday night claiming two lives.

While two persons – R Narendra and M Gowri Shankar – died, four others – L V Chandra Shekar, whose condition is said to be critical for inhaling benzimidazole gas, P Ananda Babu, D Janaki Rao and Surya Narayana were shifted to King George Hospital and RK Hospital at Gajuwaka. While the first three persons are employed as helpers at the plant, Surya Narayana is working as a chemist.

Though the incident happened on Monday night at around 11:30 pm, it came to light only in the early hours of Tuesday. District Collector V Vinay Chand and Police Commissioner R K Meena visited the unit and took stock of the situation.

Though the mishap happened at a reactor unit, District Collector V Vinay Chand said the pharma unit was temporarily shut down as a precautionary measure and there was no need to panic as the situation was brought under control.

A four-member committee has been formed to investigate the cause of the incident.

Revenue Divisional Officer P Kishore, Deputy Chief Inspector of Factories KBS Prasad, Pollution Control Board and Environmental Engineer P Prasada Rao and District Industries Centre general manager A Ramlingeswara Raju are the committee members. Later, Tourism Minister M Srinivasa Rao visited the Pharma City and mentioned that human negligence was the reason behind the mishap. "Industries should be developed. At the same time, safety and security of the employees is paramount. Action will be taken against the management after the committee submits the report.