A separate bench of the High Court of Andhra Pradesh will hear the case of LG Polymers India Ltd from whose plant at Visakhapatnam a leakage of styrene gas on May 7 killed 12 people.
On Thursday, a vacation bench of the HC comprising Justices A V Sesha Sai & K Lalitha ordered the registrar to refer the LG Polymers issue to Chief Justice J K Maheshwari to constitute a separate bench to conduct the hearings.
The vacation bench, which took up the plea of LG Polymers to allow 30 of its employees into the Visakhapatnam plant to take up emergency works, posted the case to a later date which the Chief Justice will decide after the Court vacations end on June 15.
The HC had suo motu taken up the case of styrene gas leak from LG Polymers plant at R R Venkatapuram in Visakhapatnam on the day the incident took place.
Meanwhile, the Govt. of Andhra Pradesh filed a counter-affidavit to the HC saying that it hadn’t given any no-objection certificate (NOC) to LG Polymers Ltd to reopen the Visakhapatnam plant as part of relaxations granted to industries during Lockdown 3.0 after May 4.
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In the counter-affidavit, state special chief secretary (industries) Karikal Valavan said the LG Polymers had indeed sent a mail to the industries department seeking permission for the operation of the plant & the Govt had directed the company to submit a declaration stating that its plant didn’t come under the containment zone & the buffer zone.
The Official in the affidavit said that “However, there was no such declaration from LG Polymers. So, the department has not given any NOC to the company. Moreover, polystyrene, expandable polystyrene & engineering plastics do not fall under the essential industrial goods category”.
The official clarified that there was no contamination of drinking water in Meghadrigadda reservoir closer to the LG Polymers plant. The Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board (APPCB) authorities had tested the water samples & had not found any residues of styrene in the water. It was also studying the air pollution levels around the company from time to time, he said.
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Valavan said the APPCB had already withdrawn the consent given to the company for production & management of the Vizag plant. The company had been sealed & the passports of the directors had been seized, he explained.
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