Govt asks factories to exercise caution
NEYVELI:UNION chemicals and fertilisers minister D V Sadananda Gowda on Thursday urged all public and private chemical makers to exercise caution and care while reopening their plants that suspended operations due to the lockdown imposed to contain the spread of Covid-19.
Union environment ministry and state pollution control boards issued separate directives to all companies to take precautions while restarting.
The announcements came on a day when three separate accidents killed 11 and left several injured in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Chhattisgarh.
All the fatalities were in Visakhapatnam, where a styrene gas leak at a polymer plant forced the evacuation of thousands of people in the 3-kilometre radius.
In Tamil Nadu, a boiler at an NLC India thermal power plant in Cuddalore exploded, causing brief blaze. The incident left two workers injured, an NLC official said. “Due to pressure, there was an explosion in the boiler and it led to a flash fire injuring six workers and two technicians.”
In the third incident, seven workers fell ill — three of them seriously — after inhaling poisonous gas at Shakti Paper Mill in Chhattisgarh’s Raigarh, police said. The incident occurred when the victims were cleaning a recycling chamber late on Wednesday, said SP Santosh Singh.
The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) recommended better operational guidelines be given to the plants. “The (Visakhapatnam) leakage has happened due to irregular maintenance of storage tanks during the lockdown.styrene must be kept at a temperature below 17C however since the plant was under partial shutdown the maintenance activities were irregular. Another industry disaster was reported at a Paper mill in Chhattisgarh -- when gas leaks affected the workers who were housekeeping at the units. The third incident was at Neyveli thermal power station. Two boilers of 210 MW capacity blasted... While these boiler units were in running condition, poor maintenance practices due to less manpower in the plant is suspected a reason for the blast. It is clear industries are in haste to restart operation post lockdown...” said Nivit K Yadav, industries researcher, CSE.