Nellore: Three persons died and 4 others took seriously ill following leakage of gas at Venkata Narayana Active Ingredients Private Limited, formerly Nutra Specialities Private Limited, at Chandrapadia village in Vinjamur mandal in the district in the early hours of Tuesday.
The deceased were employees at the unit and they were identified as Pathipati Tirupataiah, 61, a junior technician hailing from Yerraballipalem in Vinjamuru mandal, Velugoti Thirupathaiah, 64, a casual labour from Chouta Bhimavaram in AS Peta mandal, and Bellamkonda Srinu, 28, a senior executive belonging to Vinjaumur.
The injured are also employed at the factory and they have been identified as S.K. Sharifuddin, 43, M. Nagarjuna Reddy, 38, and Ulsa Sravan, 32, all senior staff. Another injured M. Balakrishna is working at the office. All of them are being treated at private hospitals in Nellore and Atmakur.
Incidentally, one person was killed and four others injured critically when a blast took place at the same plant in July last year.
After the blast in July last year, district officials halted the production and restored permissions after 3 months.
Nutra Specialities which was started in 2006 was subsequently renamed Venkata Narayana Active Ingredients. The company is at present making 19 varieties of drugs and employs over 350 workers. Local people have been raising a hue and cry and staging protests for a long time, citing the release of pollutants by the unit.
District Collector K.V.N. Chakradhar Babu, Atmakur RDO A. Chaitravarshini, Kavali DSP B. Prasad and officials from factories department and Pollution Control Board rushed to the spot to assess the situation and oversee relief operations.
Chaitravarshini said human error appeared to be the reason for the gas leak and deaths of 3 persons. She said they were still uncertain about the type of gas responsible for the incident. She said a comprehensive probe would be conducted into the incident and a report would be submitted to the Collector soon. She also said the MD of the unit gave an undertaking that such kind of instances would not recur in the future and he assured to follow all safety standards.
