VIZAG LEAK: THAT AVOIDABLE TRAGEDY

What have we learned from the infamous Bhopal Gas Tragedy – the gas leak which claimed the lives of as many as 3,787 innocent people in a city situated in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh? The repetition of similar incidents proves that the country has not learned anything from that tragedy.

- Vignesh S.G

On May 8, 2020, the country has woken up to a depressing news report – the story which describes the latest gas tragedy. Over eleven people have been killed in the gas leak happened in a South Korean company owned chemical plant situated in Visakhapatnam – the city located in Andhra Pradesh. Unfortunately, there is a six-year-old among those who have lost their lives.

At the time the story is being written, at least 350 people, who have been affected by the leak, are in various hospitals waiting for their destiny.

If methyl isocyanate was the villain in the Bhopal episode, here the villain is none other than styrene gas – the gas which is yet to be proved as fatal.

A big question that remains unattended is: who is the actual villain in this case.

Actually, the real culprit in this matter is the system – which administers the country on behalf of each of its citizens, including those who have been affected due to the disastrous leak. That culprit can no longer remain silent. The authority needs to answer several important questions.

One of those questions has already been asked by the Andhra Pradesh High Court. The court has enquired how such a chemical factory was erected in a densely populated area.

Had the factory owned by one of the largest chemical companies of South Korea LG Polymers been erected not near the densely populated area, the death rate and injured rate would not have grown this high.

The actual problem is that only when an incident like this spits its flame on our face, we wake up to the reality that a large number of our population lives under the risk of chemical exposure.