Vizag comes to grips the day after

Visakhapatnam: The villages in and around L G Polymers continue to be deserted even 48 hours after the incident of gas leak.

According to officials and Minister for Industries Gautam Reddy, it would take at least another two days to neutralise the effect of the Styrene gas. Large scale operations to spray water in the colonies in and around the company in an range of about 5 to 6 km was on.

According to the minister, the impact of the gas has been neutralised in the storage tank and there is no fear of the tank getting blown up. Expert teams from Pune, Mumbai and Gujarat are supervising the efforts to neutralise the impact of the gas and have set up mobile pollution centres to monitor the air quality.

A drive through the affected areas presented a pathetic picture of deserted and locked houses and all trees turned into brownish colour. They are dead and no one knows what would be impact of the gas on the soil. At some places some people in their hurry to escape from the impact of the gas had not even locked the houses. Police now has a tough task to ensure that no thefts take place during the period when neutralisation works are on.

Meanwhile, according to the minister, 305 people were undergoing treatment at KGH hospital and of them 52 were children. He said the health condition of all of them was stable. The minister said nobody would be allowed into the affected villages till experts give green signal. The Chief Minister has advised the officials to take all precautionary measures and assured that the compensation announced would be paid very soon. Medical teams are on alert and people in need can get treatment on the spot at the relief camps arranged for the purpose.