Visakhapatnam: Periodical safety audit sought for industries to prevent accidents

Visakhapatnam: Periodical safety audits in all the industries and strict implementation of safety norms by all the industries must be considered to ensure zero industrial accidents, demanded representatives of Praja Arogya Vedika here on Saturday.

With Visakhapatnam and Anakapalle being the major industrial districts of Andhra Pradesh, the representatives said several public and private sector industries that handle chemicals and pharmaceutical products for transportation were spread across the districts.

Keeping the safety aspects in view, they demanded the establishment of a super specialty hospital in Anakapalle including a burns ward in the vicinity of major chemical/pharma industries.

Continuous and regular awareness classes for the workers on safety and occupational health, enforcement of safety drills, a comprehensive system to address chemical and pharma industries that deal with hazardous chemicals and gases and take serious action against those violating safety norms were some of the other demands the members of the vedika listed.

Despite repeated industrial accidents, the members pointed out that the authorities concerned continue to neglect in considering steps to stop the mishaps from happening. They appealed to the authorities and the ministers to draw up a plan for safety measures and implement them on a war-footing.

Even in the case of LG Polymers styrene monomer gas leak incident, the members of the Vedika said that the High-Power Committee recommended several short-term and long-term action plans to be taken by the state government post its investigation. However, there was no action plan in place even after two years since the incident happened.