Mishaps at pharma units in North Andhra raise concern on public safety

Visakhapatnam: Frequent accidents at pharmaceutical units in North Andhra claiming lives and leaving many critically injured has raised public concern about safety.

Despite stout denial by the authorities, there have been allegations from the activists that some of the companies taking advantage of lack of proper regulatory mechanism, are discharging untreated effluents into the Bay of Bengal and compromising on initiating measures to improve safety standards due to apparent reasons.

After Hyderabad and its suburbs became saturated for growth for bulk drug units, parts of Visakhapatnam, Srikakulam and Vizianagaram have turned into homes for several pharma majors with an estimated turnover of over Rs.30,000 crore.

The recent death of a worker and critical injuries caused to four others in a reactor blast at Hetero premises at Nakkapalli, about 80 km from Visakhapatnam is a case in point.

Though the Department of Factories and other departments are conducting separate probes to find out the reasons which triggered the fatal incident, the trade unions and opposition parties including TDP politburo members and former Ministers Bandaru Satyanarayana Murthy and Ch Ayyanna Patrudu, environmental activist and Jana Sena leader Satyanarayana Bolisetty and M Appalaraju, who is associated the agitation against laying of pipeline from Hetero into the sea at Nakkapalli have sought criminal proceedings against the management for safety lapse.