Sivakasi firecrackers blast case: Court mulls transfer of investigation to CBI
If this court had not taken suo motu cognisance of the incident, the officials would have forgotten about it within three days.
Madurai: Condemning both the Central and State governments for indulging in a blame game and not taking responsibility for the recent fire mishap at a cracker shop in Sivakasi resulting in the death of nine persons, the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court asks why should not the case be transferred to the independent agency CBI to conduct a thorough probe.
"There was gross violation of safety rules which resulted in this incident, but both the Central and State government are blaming each other to escape from their responsibility. The government officials are least bothered about the safety of the people," Justice S Nagamuthu said.
If this court had not taken suo motu cognisance of the incident, the officials would have forgotten about it within three days. "Every year around 20 such incidents are reported in the State and many people lose their lives, but have you ever learned a lesson and taken steps to prevent it," the judge asked.
K.K. Sundaresan, deputy chief controller of Explosives, Sivakasi appeared before the division bench comprising Justices Nagamuthu and M.V. Muralidharan on Monday and said they had been renewing the licence of the crackers shop for the past 20 years since 1996, but there was no violation of safety rules in the shop. Its license was renewed up to September 2020 last year and they inspected the shop recently, he added.
Irked by his response when the court asked Sundaresan whether they have inspected the shop before renewing the licence, the officer responded in the negative. "As we have to process nearly 400 applications, we will only check for the renewal details and the fee," he said.
When the Justice Nagamuthu asked," You will blindly renew it sitting in your office without checking whether the safety measures are in place", the assistant solicitor general, Central Government G.R. Swaminathan told the court that, as per rules, it is not mandatory for the officials to conduct filed inspection for renewing the licence.