The committee was set up at a meeting presided over by Minister of State for Law Hemantbhai Chapatwala here on Sunday. Forest and Environment Minister Kanjibhai Patel was also present at the meeting attended by municipal councillors from Adajan-Rander, local leaders and people from localities affected by the gas leak.

GGCL Vice-president K P Sinha reiterated at the meeting that his company was not responsible for the leak, and agreed for a test by a government-certified agency.

The Gujarat Pollution Control Board and Central Pollution Control Board had claimed in a report that ethyl mercaptan, an odourant mixed for detection of gas leaks, was being liberated into the air from the GGCL's Adajan plant during dosing operations. Acting on this, the district magistrate served the company a notice, asking it to correct certain operational deficiencies pointed out in the report.

GGCL, which subsequently engaged Montgomery Watson Consultant India (Pvt) Ltd for an independent probe, submitted its report to District Collector R M Shah on Saturday, saying the leaking gas was not ethyl mercaptan, and that the company was not responsible.

The 12-member committee will comprise, besides the collector, councillors, two GGCL officials and pollution control board officials, among others. The committee members will acquaint themselves with the various processes and visit GGCL on February 11. It will submit its report within a fortnight.

Incidentally, a 12-member committee with one representative each from the Hazira-based companies was formed when complaints about the foul gas first came up. But the committee was wound up when it was found to be not too effective.