The High Court has directed that the LG Polymers plant in Visakhapatnam should be seized and no one, including the company directors, be allowed to enter its premises.
Also read: Vizag gas leak: LG Polymers moves Supreme Court against Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board
However, the court permitted the committees formed by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) and the Central and State governments to probe the incident, to make a note of their visits in registers maintained at the factory gate. The compliance report is to be filed by May 26 and cases listed on May 28.
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Chief Justice J.K. Maheswari and Justice K. Lalitha Kumari also ordered that the company assets, both movable and immovable, should not be shifted without their consent. The court further directed that the surrendered passports of the company directors should not be released and they (the directors) be not allowed to leave the country without its permission.
It (the court) sought to know whether the company applied for permission to restart during the lockdown and directed the government to file an action-taken report if the operations were resumed without necessary clearances.
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Net worth
The court questioned what is the LG Polymers’ net worth as per the Companies Act (not book value) and with whose permission the styrene monomer was transported to South Korea when a magisterial inquiry and various inspections were under way.
Besides, the HC called for an explanation to the lack of a valid environmental clearance from Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, existence of hospitals, educational institutions, railway stations, airport and etc. in the vulnerable zone that extended up to a radius of 6.3 km, non-functioning of siren/alarm system and failure to inform the people about the risk involved in the storage of styrene and to give them training in evacuation procedures as per the Manufacture, Storage and Import of Hazardous Chemicals Rules, 1989.