4 More Experts Join High-Powered Committee In Vizag Gas Leak Probe

VISAKHAPATNAM: Four more technical experts from Centre have joined the high-powered committee that has been set up to investigate the LG polymers gas leak tragedy that occured in Visakhapatnam on May 7.

The experts include Dr S K Naik, Director General CIPET Chennai in the Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals, Bhagat Sharma, Additional Director, MoEF & CC,Regional Centre Pune, Dr. R K Elengovan, DG Factory Advice Service and Labour Institutes Mumbai, Dr Anjan Ray, Director Indian Institute of Petroleum Dehradun, a high-powered committee (HPC) spokesperson said, a leading daily reported.

On May 22, the HPC held deliberations after examining all records and media coverages, verifying correspondences and seeking experts opinion.

The committee had asked further inputs to be submitted by May 31, so that the report can be submitted in the stipulated time in another week or so.

Twelve persons perished in the tragic styrene gas leak at the LG Polymers chemical plant located at RR Venkatapuram in Visakhapatnam in the early hours of Thursday morning. A few hundred others have been admitted to hospitals after inhaling the toxic gas.

On Monday, the Andhra Pradesh High Court has ordered the seizure of the premises of LG Polymers plant in Visakhapatnam and also barred entry into the plant by all, including directors, except the committees appointed by the state government.

The court had, in its order on May 22, ordered the company's directors not to leave the country without courts permission and instructed the authorities not to release their surrendered passports without its permission.