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Another gas leakage from LG Polymers in Visakhapatnam late Thursday triggered panic in areas near the plant and forced people to move to safe places.

Fumes were seen billowing out of the chemical plant, where the gas leakage in the early hours of the day claimed 11 lives and affected over 300 others.

People from Gopalpatnam, Simhachalam and Pinagadi areas, which are four km away from the plant, were seen moving to safe places.

The gas smell sent panic in certain areas late Thursday night. Many people rushed out of their houses and were seen heading to safer places by their vehicles.

Local police at few places advised people to move to safe places as a precautionary measure.

Officials, however, said the gas emission was continuing since the major leakage around 3.45 a.m. on Thursday.

Visakhapatnam Police Commissioner R K Meena said there was no need for panic. "Efforts are going on to neutralize the gas leak. There is no danger," he said.

The police commissioner hoped that the work to plug the emissions will be completed in a couple of hours.

About 12,000 people from RR Venkatapuram and four other villages were evacuated after the leakage early Thursday.

Visakhapatnam District Fire Officer Sandeep Anand said 10 fire engines and two foam fighters were kept ready in the plant. He said some ambulances were also on standby as a precautionary measure.

Meanwhile, a cargo flight carrying a team of experts and PTBC inhibitor, an antidote for styrene, landed in Visakhapatnam late Thursday.

The experts in chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) disaster are likely to begin the operation to plug the emissions after assessing the situation at the plant.

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New Delhi: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Friday issued notices to LG Polymers, Union Environment Ministry, Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and others regarding the Vizag gas leak incident.

The NGT has directed LG Polymers, India, at whose plant the gas leakage occurred, to forthwith deposit an initial amount of Rs 50 crore taking note of damages caused due to the incident.

Further hearing in the matter is scheduled for May 18.

On Thursday, a styrene gas leak at the plant of LG Polymers in RR Venkatapuram village in Visakhapatnam district of Andhra Pradesh had claimed 11 lives.

NGT's principal bench headed by its Chairperson AK Goel also issued notice to Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board (PCB) and District Magistrate of Vishakhapatnam.

The Tribunal has also sought a report from a 5-member committee comprising former Judge of Andhra Pradesh High Court, Justice B Seshasayana Reddy, Former Vice-Chancellor of Andhra University, Professor Ch V Rama Chandra Murthy, Head of Chemical Engineering Department of Andhra University, Professor Pulipati King, CPCB Member Secretary and Director of CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology.

NGT said that the committee may visit and inspect the site at the earliest and give its report before the next date via email and site visit may be initially conducted by members available locally in consideration with outside members online.

It said that the committee may specifically report on the sequence of events, causes of failure, the extent of damage to life, human and environment, steps to be taken for compensation of victims and restitution of the damaged property among others.

The bench has directed the District Magistrate of Vishakhapatnam and Regional Office of Andhra Pradesh PCB to provide logistic support to the Committee to enable their fact-finding and reporting.

It took suo-motu cognisance on the basis of media reports on the leakage of hazardous gas, Styrene from a chemical factory owned by the South Korean company LG Polymers. The incident has caused damage to the environment and habitat.

Styrene gas is a hazardous chemical and as per rules, it requires on-site and off-site emergency plans to ensure prevention of damage.

NGT noted that there appears to be a failure to comply with the rules and other statutory provisions and leakage of hazardous gas at such a scale adversely affecting public health and environment clearly attracts the principle of 'Strict Liability' against the enterprise engaged in a hazardous or inherently dangerous industry.

"Such an entity is liable to restore the damage caused under the Environment Law, apart from other statutory liability. The statutory authorities responsible for authorizing and regulating such activities may also be accountable for their lapses, if any, in dealing with the matter," the NGT said.

Stressing that it is necessary to ascertain the facts relating to the extent of damage, the extent of the failure and consider remedial measures, the bench listed the matter for May 18 for further hearing.

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Andhra Pradesh Director General of Police Gautam Sawang on Saturday said that the gas leakage from LG Polymers has been plugged and the situation is absolutely under control. Twelve people were killed and over 400 taken ill following leakage of toxic Styrene gas from one of the storage tanks of LG Polymers in the early hours of Thursday. Sawang told reporters after a visit to the chemical plant that more technical teams from Delhi will be reaching here later in the day to have further look into the situation and decide the way forward.

"The situation is absolutely under control. All that reactions and leakages have been plugged. There is no matter of concern anymore," he said. More technical teams from the areas of chemical and petroleum industry will be arriving to have further look into the situation. DGP said he reviewed the situation and had discussions with the technical teams on the ground. The police chief said he had a meeting with technical experts, scientists and the special team from National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), personally visited the site and found everything completely under control.

Stating that there is no need for panic, he said the experts on Friday asked people of the five villages near the plant to remain in the relief camps and wait for another 48 hours. "Experts yesterday sought 48 hours as per protocol to bring everything under control and to meet all parameters. Everything is under control but to be on the safer side they have sought the time,a he said.

Asked about the investigation, the DGP said it was still on. "The committee has been set up. It will come here and take all expert and technical inputs. We will wait as they are more technically competent to say how, why and under what circumstances this happened." The police chief said it was not correct to say that only simple sections were invoked in the case against the company. "What sections had to be applied were all applied. The investigations are still on. We have to wait. There are a lot of technical elements in this. At this stage all must come together to overcome this challenge to bring normalcy. This is more important."

Meanwhile, Tourism Minister Avanthi Srinivas said the situation had improved a lot in three days and was totally under control. He said the temperature in the leaked tank had come down to 90 degrees Centigrade from 150 degrees on Friday. Stating that there was nothing to panic, the minister appealed to people not to believe the rumours. He said the government was committed to ensure public safety and public health and was taking care of the people of five villages currently living in relief camps and 400 people undergoing treatment in hospitals.

He said seven ministers, chief secretary and several other officials were working to restore normalcy while Chief Minister Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy was regularly monitoring the situation.

Asked about the delay in bringing the normalcy, the minister said the experts had to move with caution to handle the situation. "Styrene is aggressive gas and any hasty step in dealing with could have resulted in another disaster," he said.

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1. LG Polymers admits leaking vapor from gas storage tank caused Vizag tragedy  Livemint
2. LG Polymers fined Rs 50cr for Vizag gas leak by NGT, ministry says firms violated green norms  Times of India
3. Vizag gas leak: Venkatapuram village wears deserted look on the second day  Times of India
4. Vizag gas leak: Locals protest for closure of LG Polymers amid Andhra Pradesh DGP's visit  Times of India
5. Cautionary tale  The Indian Express
6. View Full coverage on Google News

By Sudarshan VaradhanVISAKHAPATNAM, May 9 (Reuters) - Villagers placed the bodies of three victims of a deadly gas leak from an LG Polymers plant in...

Budget's proposal to reduce basic customs duty on LNG to provide respite to petrochemicals sector

Mild tension prevailed at the LG Polymers at RR Venkatapuram village near here as villagers staged a protest on Saturday demanding immediate closure of the plant. A styrene vapour leak from the plastics manufacturing plant caused the death of 12 people on Thursday. Tens of villagers, who were provided shelter in Visakhapatnam after the vapour leak, returned to the village on Saturday morning, raising slogans against the factory management and demanding its closure. A large police force was present near the factory as DGP DG Sawang was scheduled to visuit it. The police tried to prevent the villagers from going near the plant but the latter ran past the former and staged a it- in protest near the factory gate. Police immediately took the protesters into custody and whisked them away.

High tension prevailed at the LG Polymers at RR Venkatapuram village near here as irate villagers staged a protest on Saturday demanding immediate closure of the plant. The protesters placed two bodies of the dead in front of the factory main gate as part of the agitation while some youths barged into the plant even as state Director General of Police D G Sawang was inspecting the vapour leak spot and talking to the management on the measures taken to restore normalcy. The bodies were brought to the village for cremation on Saturday from the KGH mortuary after post-mortem. The angry villagers, however, stopped the ambulances in front of the plant gate and laid the bodies on the road. Emotions ran high as the villagers demanded that the plant be shut down immediately as it completely ruined our lives. A styrene vapour leak from the plastics manufacturing plant caused the death of 12 persons on Thursday. Hundreds of villagers, who were provided shelter in Visakhapatnam ...

LG Polymers India Ltd on Saturday blamed leaking vapour from a storage tank for the leakage of deadly styrene monomer gas at its Visakhapatnam plant that killed at least 11 people and forced the evacuation of thousands. Status quo at the plant was restored on Saturday morning, the company said in a statement. The gas leakage from the plant was reported on Thursday morning after the company tried to restart operations following the partial easing of the coronavirus lockdown. "Our initial investigations suggest that the cause of the incident is prima facie by the leaking vapor from the Styrene Monomer (SM) storage tank near the GPPS (General Purpose Poly Styrene) factory on Thursday, May 7," the statement said. The unit of South Korean chemical giant LG Chem said it is committed to working closely with the concerned authorities to investigate the cause of the incident, prevent recurrence in future and secure the foundation for care and treatment. "While focusing on stabilizing the ...

Vizag gas leak: NGT issues notice to Centre, LG Polymers

NGT Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel, set up a 5-member Committee to probe Thursday's gas leak incident in the chemical factory, in which 11 people were killed and 1,000 were exposed.

The company also said that all necessary measures were being used to keep the temperatures under control. Styrene gas had leaked from a tank at the plant.

The company also bypassed the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) notification, which mandates that modernisation and expansion of existing projects needs an environmental clearance (EC).

The unit said it is committed to working closely with the concerned authorities to investigate the cause of the incident, prevent recurrence in future and secure the foundation for care and treatment.

N Chandrababu Naidu urged the Centre to immediately send medical experts to the district as it may not have the required expertise to treat people affected with styrene gas.

ವಿಶಾಖಪಟ್ಟಣದಲ್ಲಿ ಗುರುವಾರದ ಅನಿಲ ಸೋರಿಕೆ ಘಟನೆಯು ಕನಿಷ್ಠ ಎಂಟು ಮಂದಿಯ ಪ್ರಾಣ ತೆಗೆದಿದೆ. ನೂರಾರು ಮಂದಿ ಅಸ್ವಸ್ಥರಾಗಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ಈ ಘಟನೆಯ ಮೂಲ ಇರುವುದು ಎಲ್.ಜಿ. ಪಾಲಿಮರ್ಸ್ ಒಡೆತನದ ಕಾರ್ಖಾನೆಯಲ್ಲಿ. ಪ್ಲಾಸ್ಟಿಕ್ ರಿಸಿನ್ ಮತ್ತು ಸಿಂಥೆಟಿಕ್ ಫೈಬರ್ ಉತ್ಪಾದನೆ ಮಾಡುವ ಕೈಗಾರಿಕೆಯ ಒಂದು ಭಾಗವಷ್ಟೇ ಈ ಘಟಕ. ಇನ್ನು ಇದರ ಮಾಲೀಕತ್ವ ಯಾರದು ಅಂತ ನೋಡಿದರೆ, ದಕ್ಷಿಣ ಕೊರಿಯಾದ

The protesters placed two bodies of the dead in front of the factory main gate as part of the agitation while some youths barged into the plant even as state Director General of Police D G Sawang was inspecting the vapour leak spot and talking to the management on the measures taken to restore normalcy.

Villagers placed the bodies of three victims of a deadly gas leak from an LG Polymers plant in Andhra Pradesh at the gates of the site on Saturday, and demanded the factory be shut down immediately and its top management arrested.

Villagers placed the bodies of three victims of a deadly gas leak from an LG Polymers plant in Andhra Pradesh at the gates of the site on Saturday, and demanded the factory be shut down immediately and its top management arrested.

Villagers placed the bodies of three victims of a deadly gas leak from an LG Polymers plant in Andhra Pradesh at the gates of the site on Saturday, and demanded the factory be shut down immediately and its top management arrested.

Tokyo : Springer, 2019.

Cham, Switzerland : Springer, [2019]

Cham : Springer, 2019.

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