CUTTACK: The major firecracker explosion in which 17 persons died and 25 sustained severe injuries during the Chandan Jatra of Lord Jagannath in Puri on May 29 last year is back in focus with the National Green Tribunal (NGT) ordering a probe into the “grave security lapse” that caused it.
The NGT’s East Zone was hearing a petition seeking direction to the authorities to take steps to prohibit bursting of crackers during the rituals of Lord Jagannath in Puri. Sanjay Kumar Nayak, a resident of Aska in Ganjam district, filed the petition. Advocates Sankar Prasad Pani and Ashutosh Padhy argued on behalf of the petitioner in virtual mode.
In the order uploaded on Thursday, the bench comprising B Amit Sthalekar (Judicial Member) and Dr Vijay Kulkarni (Expert Member) said, “We dispose of the petition with a direction to the chief secretary, government of Odisha, to institute an inquiry into the incident and take appropriate action against those found guilty of gross negligence and lapse in taking proper security steps to prevent the occurrence of the incident in question.”
“For future, it is directed that no explosives of any kind shall be permitted in such religious functions where the swell of the crowd is not just in thousands but in several lakhs and even a small lapse can result in loss of lives of lakhs of people. One cannot rule out that such an incident can even be triggered by ill-intentioned and anti-social elements using more lethal explosives other than mere firecrackers,” the bench added.
The bench observed, from the affidavit of the Puri collector, it was seen that no one noticed crackers being taken in a trolley and stacked at Dasa Tutha on the northwest corner of the Narendra tank without taking permission from the competent authority.
During the Chandan Jatra on May 29, 2024, one cracker after being ignited lost its direction and hit the stack of crackers kept at Dasa Tutha. Thus all the crackers got lit resulting in a huge explosion.
“This clearly shows that there was gross dereliction of duty on the part of the district administration including the police authorities,” the bench observed.
The bench also observed, “In the instant case, it was stacking of firecrackers but one cannot rule out the possibility that it could have been something even more lethal resulting in a massive explosion causing extensive damage to the Lord Jagannath Temple itself and loss of human life on a large scale.”