A day after two contract workers died after inhaling some kind of poisonous gas at the effluent treatment plant in Jawaharlal Nehru Pharma City (JNPC), Parawada, the police, the management and the experts from the Department of Factories and the AP Pollution Control Board, are yet to come out with a plausible explanation.
Speaking to The Hindu , T. Rajendra Reddy, Joint Chief Environmental Engineer of the AP PCB, said that the incident looks mysterious, as such things should not happen in a treatment plant. But we can come to a conclusion only after a detailed investigation, which includes getting facts from the autopsy report, he said.
Environmenttal Engineer Pramod Kumar Reddy from the AP PCB, who visited the site, was also of the same opinion. According to him, since the plant was operational there is less chance of any accumulation of any kind of gas. Moreover, on Monday, when the incident took place, only three plants were pumping effluent, instead of the normal 12, to the intermediate pump house, he said.
P. Manikanta of Payakraopeta and Durga Prasad, both in their mid twenties, died on Monday reportedly after inhaling some kind of gas, when they had gone to check the level of the tanks containing effluents.
‘Design faulty’
Meanwhile, a team of the CPI (M) party led by State secretariat member Ch. Narasinga Rao visited the plant area and the houses of the victims, on Tuesday.
According to Mr. Narasinga Rao, the design of the effluent treatment plant was faulty. As per the experts, there cannot be one plant for treating the effluent of over 100 pants in the pharma city, he said.
He also alleged that the family members were not informed on time after the incident. A brother of Manikanta said that after the incident, the management did not bother to inform them and they came to know through their co-workers.
