Indore (Madhya Pradesh): In view of the upcoming Diwali festival, the district administration is enforcing strict measures regarding the safe storage and sale of firecrackers.
A team of the revenue department inspected a firecracker warehouse in the village of Pigdamber (Rau tehsil). Upon discovering that safety standards were being ignored, the administration took decisive action and sealed the warehouse with immediate effect.
The inspection, conducted under the supervision of SDM (Rau) Lokendra Singh Saral, revealed that a firecracker warehouse, operating under the name 'Sundaram Firecracker Agency', was being run by Jitesh Bagecha, son of Mohanlal Bagecha, a resident of 117 Vidya Nagar, approximately 250 feet off AB Road in Pigdamber village.
During the investigation, it was found that the access path to the warehouse was extremely narrow, making it difficult for large vehicles, such as fire engines, to navigate.
This posed a significant risk, as it could hinder rescue and relief operations during an emergency. Fire-safety equipment was non-functional or non-existent in reality. The facility failed to comply with the safety standards mandated under the Explosives Act, 2008.
Additionally, the warehouse was being used to store a wide variety of firecrackers while also serving as a point of sale, a practice deemed to be in violation of the rules. The inspection also uncovered breaches of the conditions stipulated in the facility's licence.
Given these irregularities and the potential threat to public safety, the administrative team took immediate action by locking and sealing the Sundaram Firecracker Agency warehouse.
