Tension prevailed near the Visakha Solvents plant at Parawada on Tuesday, when leaders of the CPI (M) and CPI and Telugu Desam Party tried to stage a protest, demanding that a detailed safety audit of all the units the Jawaharlal Nehru Pharma City (JNPC) be conducted.
A posse of police personnel deployed at the plant arrested more than 10 leaders including CPI (M) State secretariat member Ch. Narasinga Rao, CPI State secretary J.V. Satyanarayana Murthy and TDP leader Bandaru Satyanarayana Murthy.
The leaders assembled near the factory after a major fire broke out in Visakha Solvents late on Monday night, in which one employee was charred to death and another suffered burn injuries.
Mr. J.V. Satyanarayana Murthy said that the fire at Visakha Solvents was the second accident to be reported from the Pharma City in the last two weeks, in which three persons have lost their lives and five were injured.
‘Order probe’
Meanwhile, expressing concerns over the recurrent industrial accidents in the city, YSRCP MLA (Anakapalle) Gudivada Amarnath on Tuesday urged Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy to order a detailed probe into the incidents.
Taking a dig at N. Chandrababu Naidu, the MLA alleged that TDP chief and his party members were using the industrial accidents as pretexts to malign the brand image of Visakhapatnam, which has been announced as the executive capital for the State.
Expert panel
“We demand that a committee comprising experts and headed by a sitting High Court judge be formed to conduct a detailed safety audit of all the units in the JNPC,” he said.
The leaders also demanded that the officers concerned who had issued the clearances be booked under the relevant sections of IPC.
Mr. Narasinga Rao said that the government had given a compensation of ₹1 crore to those who died in the styrene leak at LG Polymers on May 7, and the same amount should be given to the kin of to the deceased victims of the Visakha Solvents accident.
Compensation policy
“The government should have a uniform policy when it comes to payment of compensations to those who die in industrial accidents,” he said.
The Visakha Solvents case it is learnt that an agreement has been reached that the company will pay Rs. 35 lakhs and another Rs. 15 lakhs will be paid from the CM’s relief fund.
“We also demand an impartial safety audit of all units of the JNPC as more than 60 accidents have been reported from the Pharma City since its inception and 40 employees of various units have died in the last two decades,” pointed out Mr. Narasinga Rao.
‘Violation of safety norms’
The Left party leaders alleged that safety norms were not being followed in the units in the JNPC and workers were being made to work for more than 12 hours for meagre wages.
All India Vice President of BMS, M. Jagadiswara Rao said the BMS would take up the issues pertaining to recurring accidents at the JNPC to the National Safety Council of the Ministry of Labour.