Angry locals go on rampage

Visakhapatnam: Tension prevailed for more than five hours in front of the Deccan Fine Chemicals Private Limited at Rajavaram area under Payakaraopeta mandal in Vizag district, where a major fire broke out in the warehouse on Sunday evening. Over two thousand people from Rajavaram, Gajapathinagaram, Rajanagaram, Kesavaram and Venkatnagaram on Monday went on a rampage pelting stones on the factory and set alight a pipeline connected to it.

The huge police force present resorted to a mild lathicharge to quell the agitation. The angry locals, including a large number of women on Monday morning gathered at the factory’s gate and demanded immediate closure of the factory or shifting the five villages from the vicinity of the factory as it posed a threat to their lives.

RDO from Narsipatnam K. Surya Rao was gheraoed and even chased for a distance. As the management of factory refused to allow the agitators inside the factory for discussions, the angry locals resorted to stone pelting. The police team present had to resort to a mild lathicharge to bring things under control. “We faced some breathing problem on Sunday night and Monday morning due to thick fumes following the major fire that broke out at the chemical laden warehouse of the Deccan Chemicals factory. No doubt, our lives are under great risk due the chemical factory,” said K.S. Naidu, resident of Rajavaram area.

“We are upset with the lackadaisical response from the management of the company and we will continue our fight till either the factory is closed or the villages relocated to safer places,” he added. Anticipating violent reactions from the locals, the police officials deployed huge police force and chalked out plan to impose Section 144 of Criminal Procedure Code of 1973.

P. Lakshmi from Kesavaram said that due to the burning of chemicals in the Sunday’s fire, residents felt a kind of suffocation as the toxic gases were released. Sunday's fire mishap is the second major fire accident in the last two years. On April 12, 2014, a fire broke out at the same plant due to a reactor blast that left two dead and about 20 injured.

Set up independent probe panel: Sarma

In the wake of the fire mishap at Deccan Fine Chemicals Pvt Ltd on Sunday, E.A.S. Sarma, former secretary, Government of India, demanded that the state government appoint an independent commission of enquiry to examine the factors that had caused pollution and industrial accidents in the region to bring the culprits to book.

In a letter to the chief minister on Monday, the retired bureaucrat demanded that the state government prosecute those responsible for industrial accidents - factory owners and managers - for criminal negligence. Similarly, those in charge of industrial safety in the state government should also be proceeded against for dereliction of duty.

“Almost all chemical and pharma manufacturing units, from Paidibheemevaram in Srikakulam district to the chemical unit in Payakaraopeta Mandal, have witnessed fatal accidents during the last several years. There have been multiple accidents at HPCL, Pharma city and Hetero Drugs and the story of the state’s complicity has been the same. The owners and the managers of the accident-prone units have been allowed to get away scot-free and so too the state officials concerned. It is not any coincidence that these very same units have also been found to be polluting the environment, affecting the health of the people,” Mr Sarma said.

He further added that one would have expected the present government to learn lessons from this and desist from setting up any more chemical units here. “Drop the Petroleum, Chemical and Petrochemicals Investment Region altogether and set up an independent commission of enquiry,” he urged.