Each person affected by Vizag gas tragedy gets Rs 10,000 as compensation

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Monday said that Rs 10,000 has been deposited into each account of the people affected by the Vizag gas leak. Nearly 19,893 people residing in the affected villages have been compensated.

Interacting through a video conference with the officials, the Chief Minister assured the affected people that based on the panel reports, stringent action will be taken against those responsible for the gas tragedy irrespective of their position.

"Within 10 days of the mishap, all the styrene gas deposits of about 13,000 tonnes were shipped back to the parent company and all the victims' families were provided with compensation to support their livelihood. Like never before by any government, we did our best to provide better compensation to the families, which suffered due to the tragedy," the Chief Minister said, according to an official statement.

The Chief Minister said the government is preparing to issue health cards to these families to provide better health facilities and monitor their health for which village health clinics are going to be established.

"Even earlier during Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) tragedy, we demanded the government to pay Rs 1 crore ex-gratia to the kin of the deceased but all that was paid was only Rs 5 lakh. We didn't want to repeat the same and thus paid Rs 1 crore as ex-gratia. People who were put on ventilators received Rs 10 lakh, and those who were treated for more than two days were given Rs one lakh and those with minor injuries received Rs 25,000," said Chief Minister Reddy.

( With inputs from ANI )