The residents of Nagaram and adjacent villages gave vent to their anger in the evening when Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, accompanied by Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, visited the site of the accident.
The chief minister too was heckled, but he continued his interaction with the villagers without losing his cool.
The residents complained to Mr. Naidu that the GAIL and ONGC authorities were to be blamed for the accident.
The villagers told the Chief Minister that they repeatedly lodged complaints with the authorities about frequent leakages in the gas pipelines, but their grievance fell on deaf ears.
“We can’t have gas collection centres in the close proximity of the villages. They should be relocated for our safety,” they told Mr. Naidu.
Citing that the Tatipaka Mini Refinery and Gas collection Centre of the ONGC were located right across the road, they refused to hazard a guess about the consequences had the gas and the flames spread to the refinery.
They brought to the notice of the Chief Minister that a school, a departmental store, several houses and other constructions were allowed, abutting the pipeline in utter disregard of all safety norms. The permission to these structures was given in spite of the rules that no construction should be allowed within 500 yards of the pipeline The Revenue department officials were at a loss to explain how these structures could have come up. The safety valve of the affected pipeline is at the Chinchinada Bridge .
