Chennai, June 24:
The fatalities in the Sunday’s Ammonia gas leak tragedy at a private seafood processing and export unit in Tiruvallur district of Tamil Nadu rose to 10 on Wednesday with one more affected person–a woman hailing from Odisha–succumbing at the government hospital.
All the deceased were women, with eight of them were natives of Odisha and two from Assam.
Health department officials said of the total 83 affected ,following the gas leak that occurred due to a glitch in the pipeline valve taking gas to ice flakes generator machine, ten had died, five were discharged after treatment and 68 — 65 women and three men — were under treatment. Of them, 17 were under treatment at ICU with ventilator support, 21 were put on oxygen support, while the condition of 30 others were said to be stable.
It may be noted that soon after the tragedy occurred on Sunday, Chief Minister Vijay announced a solatium of Rs two lakhs each to the bereaved families and formed a three-member expert committee
headed by Director of Industrial Safety and Health, Member Secretary,Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board and Additional Director of Public Health, to probe the incident. As mandated by the Chief Minister the committee submitted its report to the government at the state secretariat yesterday.
The National Human Rights Commission also took suo motu cognizance of the gas leak tragedy based on news reports and issued notices to the Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary and the Director General of Police calling for a detailed report on the matter within two weeks.