TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu on Saturday blamed the HPCL management for not tackling the post-blast situation at Visakh Refinery properly and alleged that there was an attempt to hush up the incident.
He told reporters after visiting the blast site and calling on the injured undergoing treatment at Seven Hills and other hospitals that there was a bid to ‘shield’ some people to prevent exposure of their lapses. He said there was a deliberate attempt to delay probe as forensic teams had not been invited to the blast spot to collect samples for examination.
Demanding a high-level independent probe into the blast, he said the guilty should be brought to the book in a time-bound manner. Mr. Naidu came down heavily on the HPCL management saying they were not in a position to say how the accident occurred and how many died and how many were injured in the cooling tower collapse.
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He said the management had failed to provide correct information to the kin of survivors and the dead by opening a Helpline and a control room.