Following the spillage of heavy fuel into the Leimakhong River on Wednesday night, the chief secretary of Manipur Vineet Joshi along with a central team inspected the fuel leakage site at Leimakhong heavy fuel plant on Friday afternoon.
The expert team comprises Professor Suresh A Kartha, Mihir Purkait, Vaibhav V Goud and Abhijit Kakati from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati and two officers from the Indian Coast Guard.
The Indian Coast Guard officials are Comdt VS Thakur and Comdt LL Singh.
The team led by chief secretary Vineet Joshi was accompanied by seven administrative secretaries of the state government.
However, the Meitei officials were left behind at the foothills in view of the tense situation in the Kuki dominated areas uphill.
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Later on, Chief Minister N Biren Singh on Friday chaired a high-level meeting on addressing the oil spillage incident along the streams in Leimakhong.
The meeting which was held at the Chief Minister’s Secretariat was attended by the chief secretary Vineet Joshi, IIT faculties, Indian Coast Guard, and various department officials.
With swift response taken from the government side, the spill, spreading heavy fuel into streams, has now been effectively controlled.
An expert team has been formed to investigate the incident and conduct a comprehensive assessment of contamination and its impact on the surrounding areas. Additional security measures have also been taken up as well.
It may be mentioned that leakage of heavy fuel from Leimakhong Power Station was reported on January 10, 2024, leading to spill over of the discharge along the stream passing through Kanto sabal, Sekmai etc.
An FIR has been registered and the area is also being sealed completely by deputing adequate security forces.
The expert investigation team led by Ashutosh Sinha, ADG (Int), Manipur was constituted to ascertain the cause of the incident. The other members of the team are Commissioner (Power) Shailesh Kumar Chourasia and Additional Secretary (Home) M Pradip Singh.
The committee will inquire into the cause of the incident of leakage, including circumstances leading to it, contributing factors that led to such incident, and suggest immediate and long-term measures for safety and security of the power plant.
The committee shall submit its report to the government within 15 days and the same is empowered to co-opt members as and when it thinks appropriate.
