Shimla, Feb 24 (PTI) Himachal Pradesh chief minister Jai Ram Thakur informed the state assembly on the second day of the ongoing budget session on Thursday that the manager of the Una’s illegal firecrackers factory had been arrested.
Six migrant workers had been killed and 14 others sustained burn injuries in the explosion at an illegal firecracker factory in Una district on Tuesday.
Thakur said that the factory manager Deepak Kumar Rana was arrested on February 23 and the location of other accused is being traced and teams have been sent to arrest them. The chief minister said that 1,905 kg of gunpowder and 90 litres of paint has also been seized besides a car and a laptop.
Wednesday The chief minister said the company in question was earlier Novatech Engineering which was later merged with Guruji Enterprises illegally without any registration.
Earlier, the leader of the opposition Mukesh Agnihotri demanded that those responsible for the Una explosion should be hanged and their property should be confiscated.
Meanwhile, in his statement the industry minister Bikram Singh said preliminary investigations have found that the firecracker factory functioning illegally without regulatory approvals. /The minister said that the company Novatech Engineers, in whose premises the blast occurred, had taken approval from the state government for manufacturing weighbridges and steel RCC under the Land Tenancy and Reforms Act, 1972.
Bikram Singh said the company was, however, illegally manufacturing pop-pop crackers for which it had no regulatory approvals and for power supply a Diesel Generator (DG) set was installed in the premises. Explosive material used to make firecrackers was recovered from the shed of Jai Guruji Enterprises, he added. The State Level Single Window Clearance Committee had given approval to Guruji Enterprises for making firecrackers and manza (thread for kites) in February 2019 with the condition that it should obtain approval/no objection certificate from the concerned departments, he added. The company, however, did not obtain any approvals from Pollution Control Board, Labour and Employment Department and started the production illegally, he added.
The government has also marked an inquiry to the Divisional Commissioner, Dharamshala and a Special Investigation Team headed by DIG Sumedha Dwivedi is also conducting the probe, he added.
The probe is still on and the Government is committed for safety in industries, said the minister adding that he personally inspected the incident site on Wednesday and asked to submit the investigation report at the earliest. PTI DJI RCJ RCJ
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Source: The Print
