Two accidents in quick succession in which three persons died at separate units at Jawaharlal Nehru Pharma City, Parawada, have raised concern among the public over safety apparatus at chemical units in Visakhapatnam and its neighbourhood. Many say safety is going for a toss due to lack of supervision and complacency on the part of the managements. Establishment of an Industries Emergency Response System (IERS), hazard analysis laboratory and regular safety audit, proposed long ago, are yet to take off. After spurt in accidents during the erstwhile TDP rule, a decision was taken to make safety audit mandatory. He said it was wrong to say that due to compromise on safety guidelines, accidents were occurring.

Source: The Hindu December 29, 2019 19:41 UTC