ELURU: Nallamvarithota village of Mogalthur mandal of West Godavari district remained tense on Thursday following the death of five workers of an aqua processing unit.
The five workers died due to asphyxiation in the effluents sump of Ananda Aqua Pre-Processing unit after an ammonia gas leak.
Ananda Group is the promoter of controversial Mega Aqua Food Park in Tundurru in Bhimavaram Rural mandal in the district.
There have been agitations against locating the park there by residents of nearby villages who fear that the effluents would pollute water sources in villages.
Relatives of the the workers who died on Thursday in the sump in Nallamvarithota ransacked the unit's office and manhandled a few employees.
The factory's sump, which must be cleaned from time to time remained untouched for long, causing poisonous gases to build up.
On Thursday around 9 am, 10 workers were asked to clean the sump by the factory's management.
At first, two of them descended to begin the cleaning, when they didn't not emerge even after a long time, three more went down to see if something was amiss. The others notified the management on what had happened, but by then all five workers had died of asphyxiation.
The deceased have been identified as Boddu Rambabu (20) from Mettu Revu, Nalla Yedukondalu (22) from allavari thota, Eda Yedukondalu (23) from Sitarampuram, Jakkamsetty Praveen (20) from Kalipatnam and Thota Srinu (20) from Mogalturu.
The workers' relatives agitated by placing the bodies that were retrieved by fire personnel in front of the unit's main gate and demanded that the government take action against the management.
Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu rang up District Collector K Bhaskar and enquired about the incident. He directed the Collector to take all necessary steps to assist the bereaved families.
Bhaskar announced an ex-gratia of Rs 17 lakh to the bereaved families, Rs 5 lakh of which will be paid under the Chief Minister's Relief fund, Rs 5 lakh under Chandranna Beema and the remaining Rs 7 lakh will be bourne by the management which is responsible for the tragedy. He, however, said that the government would pay the amount if the management failed to do so and added that the unit would be seized as it violated norms and misguided the district administration.
Management did not clean the sump despite locals complaining that an acrid smell was emanating from it, causing discomfort and illnesses to those living near by. When the villagers complained to the District Collector, he ordered for asbestos sheets to be used to cover the sump.
No cleaning activity took place in the last two months
After hectic efforts of the Collector and Police officials, the relatives agreed to shift the bodies for postmortem to Narsapuram Government Hospital. Later, Ministers Ch Ayyannapatrudu, Peethala Sujatha and Pydikondala Manikyala Rao reached Narsapuram Government Hospital and consoled the bereaved families.
On this occasion, Incharge Minister Ayyannapatrudu announced that the Government will pay a compensation of Rs.25 lakhs to each family. "We will assist the poor bereaved family in all respects. It was a human error and the management has to take responsibility for the incident," he said.
It is learnt that the Processing unit management did not clean the sump which was receiving the effluents from the factory besides the ammonia gas. Six months back, the villagers surrounding the factory have complained that some acrid smell was emanating from the factory leading illness to the people living in the villages.
As the management did not care, they complained to the Collector against the management on how it was neglecting the sump. On the direction of the District Collector, management has covered the sump with asbestos sheets. For the last two months, no cleaning took place and on Thursday, the management had asked the workers get into the sump.