BHOPAL: A pall of gloom unfolded at Nemawar Ghat in Dewas district, Madhya Pradesh, on Thursday as 18 funeral pyres were lit for the villagers who died in a firecracker factory explosion in Gujarat on Tuesday. The deceased belonged to three villages in two neighboring districts.
Out of the 18 people whose last rites were performed on the banks of the Narmada River, nine were from Sandalpur village in Dewas, eight from Handiya village in Harda district, and one from Hatpipliya in Dewas.
The Gujarat government has announced financial assistance of Rs 4 lakh for the families of the deceased, while the Madhya Pradesh government has sanctioned Rs 2 lakh. However, in Sandalpur village, an entire family of six perished, leaving no one to claim the compensation.
“Entire family of six headed by our aunt Keshar Bai and also including her son Lakhan, daughter-in-law Sunita and three children (Keshar Bai’s children), Radha, Rukma and Abhishek (aged between 7 and 10 years) have died in the Gujarat factory blast. Now who will get the compensation sum, when the entire family has passed away in the tragedy,” said Keshar Bai's niece, Krishna Bai.
“Two years back, our uncle Gangaram Bhopa passed away, leaving behind widow Keshar Bai and his young son Lakhan to manage the family, comprising three minors, including two daughters and a son. Then Lakhan’s marriage happened with Sunita for which the family had borrowed Rs 40,000 and it was to repay that sum that the entire family went to Gujarat to earn money,” said Keshar Bai's nephew Pyarelal.
Another family from Sandalpur village also lost their lives in the explosion. The victims included 30-year-old Rakesh Bhopa, his wife Dolly (25), and their five-year-old daughter Kiran.
“He was my younger brother, who had luckily survived a similar blast in the firecracker factory in the adjoining Harda district in February 2024. Owing to illness, he had come home just a day before the blast happened in Harda town, killing 12 people in 2024. But this time, fate had death for him, wife and their darling daughter Kiran,” Rakesh’s inconsolable elder brother Santosh Bhopa said.
“My husband suffers from mouth cancer. Rakesh had borrowed money for funding the treatment of my husband, our paralysed father and ailing mother. It was to repay that sum that Rakesh was working at a firecracker factory in Hatpipliya (Dewas). Rakesh and wife Dolly (who hails from Handiya village which has lost its eight villagers in the Gujarat tragedy) earned Rs 250-Rs 300 daily in the Hatpipliya factory, but when lured by the woman contractor Lakshami with Rs 100 more at the Gujarat factory, they went to Gujarat only to never return again,” said Santosh’s wife and Rakesh’s sister-in-law Asha.
Handiya village in Harda district, which is about 10 km from Sandalpur, also lost eight members from four families. Two others, including labor contractor Lakshami and a 10-year-old boy named Sanjay, are still missing.
Among the deceased were 40-year-old Babita and her teenage sons Dhanraj (18) and Ajay (16).
“While of four of the deceased were those who had never worked in a firecracker factory, some others were those who had survived the February 2024 blast at the firecracker factory in Harda town, including 30-year-old Guddi Bai,” said Handiya resident Rajesh Nayak.
“I never allowed my daughter Babita to go anywhere, but it was the lure of money from the labour contractor Lakshami, which made her go to Gujarat with her two sons. Now only Babita’s husband is left behind,” Babita’s tearful mother Kanku Bai said.
