Poisonous gas leak in Vizag pharma company kills two

Visakhapatnam: Two persons died and one is battling for his life after inhaling poisonous fumes that leaked from a pharmaceutical factory in Vizag on Thursday night. This was the second such incident in two days at the Jawaharlal Nehru Pharma City in Parawada.

The victims were working at Smilax Pharma Company when they breathed in the toxic gases, the police said. The dead have been identified as K Ajay Kumar (25) and T Satyanadh (26). The injured person, T Srikanth, is in a critical condition.

On Wednesday night, one person died and two landed in the hospital after noxious fumes escaped from Vijayasri Organics Limited, a drug manufacturing company, at JNPC. The deceased had been identified as Ch Sridhar (32). Sources said his injured colleagues, P Chandra Sekhar and P Appa Rao, are on ventilator support. Two other persons, L Lazar and N Suresh, who were also at the spot at the time of the leak, are reportedly out of danger.

Expressing concern over the series of the accidents at JNPC, the Centre for Indian Trade Unions (CITU) district committee alleged that the majority of the drug units at JNPC do not provide proper protective gear to their workers. “The negligence of the companies has been claiming the lives of the workers," said a CITU functionary.

The Parawada police have registered a case and the investigation is on.