elugu Desam Party (TDP) president and former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu  demanded strict action against people responsible for the gas leak incident in a Visakhapatnam laboratory in which at least 178 workers fell ill.

The workers fell sick after they inhaled the poisonous gas that leaked at Porus Laboratories Pvt Ltd in Atchutapuram of Andhra Pradesh’s Vishakhapatnam on Friday.

Expressing concern over the health of the affected workers, Naidu demanded that all necessary medical treatment should be given to them.

Hitting out at the Jagan Mohan Reddy-led AP government, the TDP chief said that neither the administration nor the factories’ management had learned any lesson even after the massive loss of lives at the LG Polymers factory in Vizag.

“The failure of the government departments and absence of monitoring has become a curse for the public,” the TDP chief was quoted as saying by the news agency PTI.

Besides Naidu, TDP national general secretary Nara Lokesh also criticised the state government for allegedly not showing any concern to stop gas leak incidents in factories.

Meanwhile, the Andhra government has constituted a joint committee to ascertain the cause of the gas leak incident.

The committee was formed by District Collector after CM Jagan Mohan Reddy ordered a detailed investigation into the accident.

The chief minister also asked the authorities to take measures for avoiding such incidents in future.

Also, he directed the Minister for Industries Gudivada Amarnath to visit the accident site.

Earlier on Friday, the Superintendent of Police Gowthami Sali had said that the workers were taken to a hospital and their condition was reported “stable with no casualties so far”.