3 company officials booked for gas leak case in Thane

Police have booked three officials of a chemical firm in connection with leakage of poisonous gas at the company's plant in Tarapur Industrial Estate in Thane district, which resulted in the death of four workers.

Thane district police said they have booked chief manager, production manager and plant supervisor of Sequential Scientific Limited for culpable homicide not amounting to murder and negligent conduct with respect to poisonous substance as well as machinery.

Four workers were killed, while three others were admitted to a hospital in a critical state following the leakage of hydrogen sulphide gas at the plant belonging to the company at around 7.30 PM yesterday

The workers who were killed in the incident were identified as Naresh Varma, Dinesh Singh, Shivkant Tiwari and Prajapati, who was a supervisor at the plant. Three others, admitted to a local hospital, are now out of danger, police said.

Officials of the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) and the Department of Industrial Safety and Health (DISH) are also conducting independent enquiries into the incident.

Oil leak from sunken carrier MV Rak

The Panama-flagged, Qatar-based ship that sank off Mumbai on August 4 on way to a Gujarat port from Indonesia, has started spilling oil that on Sunday reached Juhu beach. On Sunday, large amounts of oil washed ashore at Juhu and environmentalists feared the slick would spread to all city beaches in the coming days.

 Defence officers said 1.5-2 tonnes of oil was leaking from the ship per hour.

“Since last night, the oil has been seen leaking from the sunken vessel. Indian Coast Guard Ship (ICGS) Samudra Prahari, which was patrolling the seas, immediately responded and used an oil spill dispersant to neutralise the spilled oil. Operation Paryavaran Suraksha-2/2011 has been launched by the Coast Guard,” said Captain Manohar Nambiar, chief public relations officer, defence, Mumbai.

The officers, however, warned that despite best efforts, the oil was likely to spread and destroy marine life. A Maharashtra Pollution Control Board ( MPCB) official said, "The stricken vessel was carrying 290 tonnes of fuel oil and 50 tonnes of diesel oil. Oil is leaking at 1.5 to 2 tonnes per hour. It means 25 tonnes of oil has already been spilled. It would be presumptuous to predict the impact. We will come to know about it only after three months. The churning of the sea will carry the slick to beaches across Mumbai's western suburbs in the next few days," environmentalist Sudhakar Solomon said.

Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan too spoke of the steps being taken to contain the spill.The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), directorate-general of shipping and state government later claimed that the spill may not be caused by MV Rak.

“The BMC has been directed to alert the shore clean-up team in coordination with the Coast Guard and the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB).The BMC informed that the oil pollution at Juhu beach is mainly confined to a stretch of 750 metres, which usually occurs during high tide.

Exactly a year ago to the day, two ships MSC Chitra and MV Khalijia-III had collided off Mumbai. MSC Chitra sank spilling 800 metric tonnes of oil into the sea.

The state government has only issued an alert to fishermen, asking them not to go into the seas.The fisheries department has not bothered to send a team to investigate the threat the slick poses to the fish population.