AHMEDABAD: Jolted awake by the death of 21 workers in a deadly blast at an illegal firecracker unit in Deesa, Banaskantha, the Gujarat government has swung into damage-control mode.
In a flurry of orders, district collectors and provincial officers across the state have been directed to launch immediate inspections of all firecracker factories, godowns, and explosive storage sites.
These inspections, now top priority, must be executed without delay, with every local officer instructed to comb through explosive units in their jurisdiction and file a detailed report within 48 hours. To tighten the noose further, officials have been urged to rope in police forces during the crackdown, if the situation demands.
Nearly a year after the Deputy Chief Controller of Explosives in Vadodara issued strict guidelines in October 2024 to monitor firecracker units, the Gujarat administration is now scrambling to enforce them, only after a deadly blast in Deesa claimed 21 lives.
The very directives meant to ensure that licensed units adhered to safety norms had placed the onus squarely on local authorities. Yet, the fatal explosion has triggered a belated review of both their implementation and the failure of oversight.
Now under fire, the state machinery has launched an investigation into illegal and hazardous factories and godowns operating across Gujarat. Orders have been passed to take immediate punitive action against units holding invalid licences or flouting safety protocols, an effort that follows rather than prevents disaster.
In a widened crackdown, the government has urged collectors and provincial officers not to limit inspections to firecracker units and chemical godowns alone, but to extend surprise surveys to shopping malls, commercial godowns, and other major storage hubs. Each unit will face rigorous scrutiny to identify any illegal stockpiling of explosives or chemicals.
The Deesa firecracker unit, which operated illegally in the GIDC area without valid permission, continued to function unchecked, even after its application for renewal was ignored by the administration. Despite this glaring red flag, government officials failed to act, turning a blind eye until tragedy struck.
Now, after 21 workers paid the price with their lives, the administration has suddenly jolted into action. Had the system shown even a fraction of this urgency earlier, those lives could have been saved.
In a twist that deepens the scandal, the main accused in the Deesa firecracker factory blast, Deepak Sindhi, has been found to have political ties cutting across party lines.
Viral images circulating on social media show Sindhi rubbing shoulders with both BJP and Congress leaders, raising serious questions about political protection and regulatory blind spots.
Sindhi, now at the centre of a major criminal investigation, once held the post of mantri (Secretary) in the Deesa City BJP Yuva Morcha, a position he was appointed to in 2017.
However, after the party reportedly caught wind of his questionable conduct, he was quietly removed within just a month and a half, a move that now appears more like damage control than disciplinary action.
Adding fuel to the fire, another viral image shows Sindhi participating in a Congress-led dharna, further blurring the lines of his political affiliations.
The emergence of these cross-party connections is not just embarrassing but explosive, as the public demands to know how a politically networked man managed to run an illegal explosives unit under the administration’s nose.
