Vijayawada: The life of a young chemical engineer, C Harika, could have been saved from the recent industrial disaster in Anakapalli district if only the management of the pharma unit had been a little generous in giving her an extra day of leave that she had sought. The 22-year-old woman engineer from Kakinada had recently gone home to celebrate Raksha Bandhan and wanted to stay back for one more day to attend a competitive examination on Wednesday but Escientia Advanced Sciences Pvt Ltd, which manufactures intermediate chemicals and active pharmaceutical ingredients (API), denied her the “luxury”, local reports said. As fate would have it, she came back to work only to become a victim of the powerful vapour cloud explosion at 2.
20 pm on August 21 in the pharma unit in Atchutapuram. She was one of the 17 people who perished, leaving her family in deep sorrow. Harika had lost her father some years ago, and it’s reported that her older brother had abandoned the family.
Despite these odds, she went on to study engineering, living with her mother and paternal grandmother. It’s only 11 months ago that she had joined the pharma unit, and on Wednesday she had to rush back after Raksha Bandhan celebrations at home to meet her tragic end at the pharma plant. Family members, neighbours and locals mourned her loss and were inconsolable on receiving her body on Thursday, following a post-mortem examination.
Meanwhile, the relatives of other deceased victims and injured workers v.