Vizag plant stabilised, teams assisting govt to assess damage: L G Polymers

Apart from the 12 casualties on Thursday, the leakage had hundreds of people living closer to the plant in Visakhapatnam under medical emergency

L G Polymers India said on Saturday that the status-quo at the Vizag plant had been brought under control.

The leakage of stored styrene early hours of Thursday resulted in 12 deaths apart from causing a medical emergency for hundreds of people living in areas close to the plant in Visakhapatnam.

"Our teams are working day and night with the government to assess the impact of the damage caused and create concrete measures to deliver an effective care package that can be implemented immediately," the company said in a statement while expressing condolences and apologies to people affected by the incident.

The company said that the incident was caused by leaking vapour from the Styrene Monomer(SM) storage tank near the General Purpose Poly Styrene(GPPS) plant on May 7.

 A specialtask force has been set up to help the victims and families to resolve any issues and provide every assistance to the bereaved families. The taskforce has been asked to provide support for the families of the deceased, medical supplies and household goods, and emotional management for psychological stability of the victims.

"All families will be contacted shortly," the company said.

Meanwhile, tension prevailed at the plant premises for a few hours on Saturday when families of victims and locals staged a protest in front of the factory gates demanding a strong action against the management for the loss of life and damage due to the gas leakage. The protesters raised slogans against the company management and even demanded shifting of the factory to a place far away from their villages. However, the police was able to control the situation.

Some of the families of the deceased took part in the protest along with the dead bodies handed over to them after the postmortem, leading to the commotion. Protestors also tried to block the convoy of state director general of police(DGP) Gautam Sawang, who came to visit the accident site at the time. Some of the protestors were heard complaining that company officials did not meet the victims' families or the people of the affected villages even two days after the incident occurred.

The DGP said the police would wait one more day before allowing people back to their homes as a precaution.