 At least 11 people were killed and hundreds hospitalized after poisonous tyrene gas leaked from a chemical plant in India on May 7. The leak happened at the LG Polymers plant in Vishakapatnam in the state of Andhra Pradesh and the incident occurred during an attempt to reopen the plant after the easing of coronavirus-related restrictions. LG Polymers is a subsidiary of South Korea's LG Group. Due to the intensity of the vapours, many residents of the nearby village fell unconscious while on the road. Tyrene is a lethal chemical with carcinogenic effects. The incident brought back memories of the Bhopal gas tragedy of 1984 when thousands of people were killed due to the leakage of methyl isocyanate from the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal in central India. Trade unions and opposition parties have condemned the negligence that led to the Vishakapatnam incident. The center of Indian trade unions demanded strict actions against the management of the plant, accusing them of criminal negligence and irresponsibility. It also said that the government had failed to take necessary measures despite similar accidents having taken place in the past at different factories. The Communist Party of India, Marxist, called for a judicial inquiry to be conducted in a time-bound manner and for the guilty to be punished. Newsclick spoke to former bureaucrat and activist Iyer Sarma on the accident and those responsible. To summarize, it's a very, very bad accident. There was a similar accident about six, seven years ago, about 60 miles south of Vishakapatnam, one private chemical factory, and a similar gas explosion and villagers in four villages ran away. At the time also, we protested and we asked the government to take action against the promoters of that industry and the officers responsible for regulating industrial safety and pollution. Almost about 15, 20 years ago, the government actually allotted this land to this particular company for an industry and they call it a public purpose with some conditions and these conditions were not fulfilled. So the government, you know, we were, I took it up saying that this government land and they are not using it for any worthwhile public purpose. So the government should take back the land and allot it for a genuine public purpose. So the government actually tried to take over and the company dragged them into litigation and there were judgments and counter judgments and the litigation was going on and suddenly you find Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board, which is a state regulatory authority, consider this project. They don't even consider the state government and they give clearances. So this looked as though and this is the case with many industrial units in Andhra Pradesh and I'm sure elsewhere in India that these industrial houses, these promoters are tampered. And you know, when they violate the law of the land, no action is taken. And very often there is a nexus between political parties and some of these industrial units because election funding is probably provided by some of these companies, not this, but other companies. So it looks as though that the government has been very, very soft on many of these industries were violating the environment laws, they're violating the human rights norms and they're violating the law of the land in general and no action is taken. I do not find a single promoter of any of these industries where accidents have taken place, a single promoter being prosecuted.