The Hindu : Tension after gas leak

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jun 18, 2002

Southern States

Southern States - Tamil Nadu

Tension after gas leak

By S. Dorairaj

CUDDALORE JUNE 17 . Tension prevailed in two villages on the East Coast Road, about 10 km from here, as a large number of people staged a road-roko for nearly two hours from 9 a.m. today, protesting the alleged gas leak from an unlicensed chemical unit near the SIPCOT complex.

Some said children and elderly persons were affected due to the ``gas leak'' which began around 6 a.m. A team of government officials including the BDO and tahsildar visited the spot and persuaded the residents including women of Karaikadu and Eachankadu to disperse. Shortly after inspecting the factory, they told the villagers that instructions had been given to the management not to run it without getting clearance from the agencies concerned.

The BDO, V. Baskaran, confirmed that the unit manufacturing `base transfer catalysts' had not obtained the TNPCB's clearance. It had not even received the nod from the Health department, the Inspectorate of Factories and the local body, he said. The lorry carrying a consignment of raw material to the unit was detained in the factory premises.

The DSP, R. Chinnasamy, said the vehicle would be allowed to leave only after a thorough inspection by the TNPCB personnel. Care was taken to prevent any law and order problem in the area, he added.

Pazha Tamaraikannan, Cuddalore panchayat union chairman, claimed that the intensity of the gas leak was high as some school children and farm labourers working in adjacent fields fainted. Some of the victims were admitted to a private hospital in the town.

The panchayat union had sought the intervention of the district administration to ask the management to wind up the unit in view of the `health hazard' it was posing, he said.

K. Tamilselvan of Karaikadu said petitions had been submitted to the Collector and other officials that the reported release of `effluents' affected the people, cattle and crop in the surrounding villages.

Meanwhile, a factory employee said the unit was handling chemicals such as soda ash, urate and hypo bromide solution for manufacturing the catalyst. The latest consignment of raw material received from Andhra Pradesh was of inferior quality, which might have caused the problem, he claimed.

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