Visakhapatnam: Tension prevailed in Chippada, Bhimili and few other areas under Bhimili police station limits as the locals staged protests demanding the management of Divis Laboratories Ltd to suspend work on construction of its third unit.
The police forces are trying to thwart the protest by arresting the agitating leaders at various places.
People belonging to the surrounding villages of Divis Labs gathered at the collectorate and staged protests demanding that the government should intervene and stop the expansion of the pharma unit.
“Around 16 villages will be affected due to the expansion of Divis Labs. It was only four chemical blocks in 2002 but now the blocks went up to 40. Now another 20 blocks will be added with the extension of the unit by adding the third one. Due to the pharma company, the surrounding environment has been totally polluted and air and water is contaminated. There are cases where pregnant women gave birth to children with deformities due to air and water contamination,” said CPM state secretariat member, Ch. Narasinga Rao at the district collector.
Mr Narasinga Rao alleged that Divis had a net profit of Rs 847 crore during 2014-15 fiscal and failed to spend 2 per cent on the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities in the surrounding areas.
He also demanded the police to lift police camps that were setup at the villages and stop terrorising villagers who were opposing the construction of Divis expansion unit.
