Send medical experts to treat Vizag gas leak victims: Naidu to Goyal

Vishakapatnam: Former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and leader of opposition N Chandrababu Naidu on May 7th, wrote to Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal and Minister of Health and Family Welfare Dr. Harsh Vardhan to send medical experts from across the country to treat the victims of styrene gas.

Tragedy struck Vizag city on Thursday when eleven people were killed including two children and over 1,200 others fell sick after (styrene) gas leaked from the LG Polymers plant at the Gopalapatnam area.

In this regard , Former Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, in his letter, pointed out that medical aid should be two-pronged keeping in mind that styrene causes breathing problems, in addition to Covid-19 infecting the lungs and reducing the immunity of a person.

The leader of Opposition expressed an urgent need to close down the LG Polymers unit in Visakhapatnam. He also requested the Government of India to initiate a thorough inquiry about the gas leak.

Naidu also requested the government to shift the entire unit to Special Economic Zone (SEZ) as there would be no population in the vicinity. He requested the government to focus on mitigating further loss of lives and in the long run to minimise the adverse health effects on the people of Visakhapatnam. He also insisted that Government of India should provide expertise and guidance to the Government of Andhra Pradesh till the issue of gas leak was brought to a logical conclusion.

He also requested the government to estimate the distance up to which the leaked gas will have an affect. All the people and animals in the estimated radius to be affected must be evacuated at once and provided necessary medical aid, he suggested.

“In this crucial time, it is also vital for us to recognise the importance of animals in general and domestic animals in particular. Veterinary experts may be deployed to treat the animals,” he said