Vizag cops close down LG Polymers plant

VISAKHAPATNAM: Police personnel have closed down LG Polymers plant at RR Venkatapuram in Vizag on Monday, according to Andhra Pradesh High Court’s interim directive.It may be recalled that 12 persons had died and several hundreds hospitalised due to styrene vapour leak early this month.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Udaya Bhaskar told TNIE that the police were not allowing anyone, including the company staff, to enter the plant. However, five members are allowed inside the plant’s premises to maintain the temperature of the styrene tank.

The DCP said their investigation was going on, but they were waiting for the technical committee to probe further as many technical issues were also involved. Bhaskar said the law and order situation was under control in the affected villages. LG Polymers has stopped supplying food to residents of RR Venkatapuram, the DCP said, adding the company was supplying food since the May 7 tragedy.

The High Court, which took suo motu cognisance of the case, directed the State government to seize the plant and ruled that none will be allowed inside without obtaining prior permission from the court.
The court wanted to know whether permission was given to the plant to resume production during lockdown and directed the government to file an Action Taken Report (ATR) in case necessary clearances were not taken. It also asked the LG Polymers management not to shift movable or immovable assets and asked its directors not to leave the country without its permission.

Meanwhile, four more experts from various fields were nominated to the high-powered committee, which is probing the reason behind the gas leak.After the incident on May 7, the State government had constituted the high-powered committee, headed by Special Chief Secretary (environments and forests) Neerabh Kumar Prasad to investigate the mishap. The committee has held discussions with experts and agencies, including Indian Institute of Petroleum, Vizag, Director and Professor of Organic Chemistry (Retd), National Disaster Response Force, Pollution Control Board, Fire Services department and others till now.

The committee felt the need for some more technical  experts from the Centre and requested the Chief Secretary to address the issue. Following a request by him to the Union Labour and Employment, Environment, Forests and Climate Change and Chemicals and Petrochemicals departments and to the NDMA, four more experts have been nominated to the committee. They include Dr SK Naik, DG Central Institute of Plastics Engineering and Technology, Chennai, Bhagat Sharma, Additional Director, Ministry for Environment and Climate Change, Regional Centre, Pune, Dr RK Elangovan, DG Factory Advice Service and Labour Institutes, Mumbai and Dr Anjan Ray, Indian Institute of Petroleum, Dehradun, Director.

The high-powered committee will receive inputs from all stakeholders till May 31 and the response from LG Polymers, regulators and other stakeholders up to June 10. They will submit the report to the government on June 17. It asked those interested to send their inputs to convenorhpc@gmail.com

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The committee will receive inputs from all stakeholders till May 31 and the response from LG Polymers, regulators and other stakeholders up to June 10. It asked those interested to send their inputs to convenorhpc@gmail.com