Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): After the Harda blast incident, the district administration embarked on an expedition to check firecracker shops, explosive material and gas godowns on Wednesday.
Shops which were found violating the safety norms were sealed.
Moreover, recommendations were made to shift some shops and gas godowns away from residential areas.
It was during the morning hours that collector Kaushlendra Vikram Singh convened the meeting of all additional district magistrates, sub-district magistrates and police officers and asked to carry out the checking drive.
On his directions, circle-wise inspection teams headed by SDMs were formed. These teams checked explosive material storage, wholesale crackers shop and godowns, manufacturing sites, gas godowns and retail outlet centres of petroleum products.
In Bairagarh, SDM Aditya Jain carried out the inspection drive. He told Free Press that three shops 'Durga, Soni fireworks and Kalu Cracker' were sealed as they were found flouting the norms.
In the meantime, instructions of fire safety audit were also given.
Kolar SDM Ashutosh Goswami said that during the checking drive, Mahaveer firecracker shop at Hoshangabad road was sealed as it was not having some necessary permissions, including electricity and secondly it was having some shortcomings.
SDM MP Nagar Laxmikant Khare said that there was no fire cracker shop in the MP Nagar circle. However a gas godown in Khajuri was found running in the residential area. Henceforth, a recommendation has been made to shift it somewhere else for safety reasons.
The investigative teams will submit the inspection report to the collector by Thursday. The inspection teams have been directed to mention in the report that what kind of action they have taken against shops running illegally.
