Host of violations across the board at MP factory
BHOPAL/HARDA: Irregularities such as storage of explosives well above the permitted limit and absence of proper water tanks were detected at the factory that caught fire in Harda on Tuesday, leaving 11 people dead and over 200 injured, in an inspection conducted by the district administration in September 2023, documents accessed by HT showed on Wednesday.
No corrective action was taken in the interim period. The copy of the inspection report at the factory in Bairagarh area of Narmadapuram district owned by Rajesh Aggarwal and Somesh Aggarwal, who were arrested on Wednesday, said that the factory flouted several norms under of the Explosives Act, 2008 and operations should be stopped immediately to prevent any loss of life.
“No documentary evidence has been presented during the investigation regarding the approved map/drawing of the firecracker manufacturing complex. During investigation, it was found that the firecrackers manufactured were kept in the warehouse rooms for drying, which is not in accordance with Specification 3 of the Explosives Act, 2008,” the report said.
The report also said the explosives found in the factory were much more than permitted and there were crackers such as twine bombs, which was in violation of the licence conditions. It said the factory was allowed to stock only 15kg of explosives but the accused took two licences for the factory in the same premises. “The stock was many times higher than the prescribed limit,” the report said.
The inspecting officer and then sub-divisional magistrate, Ashish Khare, asked the Narmadapuram commissioner in September 2023 that the factory be sealed. But no action was taken.
In September 2022, the factory was inspected by the then collector Rishi Garg and he recommended sealing of the factory and cancellation of the licence under the Explosives Act. However, his recommendation was overturned by the then divisional commissioner Mal Singh on October 14, 2022, documents showed.
Mal Singh refuted the finding and said, “It was an old matter and when it came to me in a public hearing, I referred it to the collector for reconsidering the action.”
On Wednesday, divisional commissioner Pawan Sharma said, “Four licences were issued — two each by the deputy controller of explosives, Bhopal, and two by the local administration — for running cracker factories in the same premises. Two licences given by the local administration had been cancelled and they have asked Bhopal to cancel the other two.”
Former Bairagarh sarpanch Dhirendra Saini said the accused turned the entire area into a “godown” of explosives. “He used to give explosives to locals to manufacture crackers at their homes on contract. This was a reason that when the factory caught fire, there were also explosions in the nearby houses,” she said.
Praveen Soni, a local lawyer, said that in July 2021, a Harda court had convicted factory owner Rajesh Aggarwal and Dinesh Sharma of culpable homicide not amounting to murder for running a firecracker factory where two workers died in a fire in 2015.