Andhra Pradesh initiates special safety drive in industrial units after series of mishaps

The Andhra Pradesh government has initiated a special drive in all the industrial units in the state to ensure safety and environmental compliance, to be completed in three months.

The move comes in the wake of a series of industrial mishaps in the state in the last few months, especially in Visakhapatnam, that claimed at-least 30 lives.

On Tuesday, another industrial mishap took place in Visakhapatnam. A fire in a pharma unit in Atchutapuram SEZ, however, was without any life loss.

The Jaganmohan Reddy government’s special drive is based on the recommendations of a high-power committee which probed the 7 May styrene vapour leak from the LG Polymers unit near Visakhapatnam.

While the LG gas leak claimed 12 lives, three more died later, according to the police. Three more industrial mishaps took place in Visakhapatnam since then, in which 14 workers were killed.

“There is an immediate need to organize a special drive of inspections for ensuring compliance of all the safety protocols and environmental norms by all the industrial units in Andhra Pradesh,” the orders issues by the industries and commerce department on Tuesday said.

The drive would cover all hazardous chemical industries covered under the Manufacture, Storage and Import of Hazardous Chemical Rules, 1989, all industries which store, manufacture or handle hazardous materials/chemicals notified under MSIHC Rules irrespective of threshold quantity of the chemicals storage, all units which store, manufacture or handle explosive substances as defined under the Explosives Act and Petroleum Act and all the red category industrial units.

For the purpose of the special drive, the government is constituting district level joint committees with the Joint Collector in charge for Industries & Commerce as the Chairman, and officials of factories, pollution control board, electricity, and fire etc., departments as members.

Apart from ensuring compliance on part of the occupier of the industrial units and the officials concerned, the committee shall ensure that the local crisis group as provided under Chemical Accidents Emergency (Planning, Preparedness and Response) Rules, 1996 is formed for all four categories of the industries covered under the special drive.

State Disaster Response Force to become an integral part of the onsite, off-site mock drills and implementation of emergency plans in all hazardous industries.