Five workers die inside chemical tank

Mogaltur (West Godavari): It was waiting to happen. Five daily wagers unsuspectingly entered a chemical tank in a food processing unit to clean it and paid a heavy price with their lives. The workers died after inhaling the poisonous ammonia gas inside the tank at the Ananda Aqua Food Processing unit at Nallamavari Thota village in Mogaltur mandal. Despite warnings on water contamination and presence of poisonous gases, the management ignored the safety protocol, it is said.

After word spread that the workers had died due to negligence of the Ananda management, family members of deceased and villagers reached the unit in huge numbers and started pelting stones. The irate villagers went berserk and damaged furniture at the unit and shouted slogans, demanding immediate closure. Before the situation could go out of control, police entered and pacified the angry mob.

The villagers raised slogans against Ananda group of companies owner Uddharaju Kasi Viswanadha Raju and demanded that Rs 25-lakh compensation be paid to the families of the workers. “We have been demanding penal action against the processing unit as it is releasing pollutants into the fresh water canal and poisonous gases. Who will take care of the elders in the five families now,” cried Kanakamma, wife of Boddu Rambabu, one of the deceased workers.

Tragedy

struck at around 9 am when the workers were cleaning the 20-ft high tank. Narasapur DSP Purnachandra Rao told TOI that the workers inhaled the ammonia gas released from another chamber while cleaning the tank and died inside the tank. “It is believed that sudden leakage of ammonia gas was the reason for the tragedy,” the DSP said, promising the families that strong action would be taken on the management.

The victims were identified as Eega Yedukondalu, Nalla Yedukondalu, Rambabu, Thota Srinu and Jakkamsetti Praveen. All of them belonged to Nallamavari Thota. “The unit management should have provided safety masks for workers and its negligence has cost five lives,” rued a villager Sunnam Venkateswarlu. A case of accidental death was registered.

Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu spoke to West Godavari collector Katamaneni Bhaskar on the incident. Apart from CM, YSRC chief Jaganmohan Reddy, PCC president Raghuveera Reddy and Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan expressed shock and demanded immediate cancellation of the licence of the unit. Narsapur sub-collector Sumith Kumar Gandhi reached the spot and inquired about the incident.