CHANDIGARH: After the blast in an illegal firecracker factory in Batala in which 22 people died and 27 were injured, the Punjab government has decided to set up a committee to identify and shut down such factories in residential areas across the state.
Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Friday announced the setting up of the committee under the chief secretary and the DGP to identify such firecracker factories. "A committee headed by the chief secretary and the director-general of police will carry out inspections across the state to find such factories
and we will shut them down," said Amarinder who visited the site of the factory in Batala.
Asserting that firecracker factories should not be allowed in crowded areas, he said that an inquiry was ordered into a blast that had occurred in the same place in January 2017, before the Congress government came to power in the state. "An inquiry was ordered at that time also. What happened to that? Why did
nothing come out? How were the factory owners allowed to carry on?" he said.
Meanwhile, in another incident, two people were killed and one was injured in a blast in Tarn Taran district when they were trying to make a bomb. The NSG and NIA teams visited the spot and collected information and other relevant details.
Amarinder said, "Three people were making a bomb in a bottle with a mixture of chemicals and also digging a pit in a field when the blast took place on Wednesday night. Two of them died and one was injured. The police are trying to find out for whom they were making the bomb and why.’’