The Madurai bench of the Madras High Court has sought a report from the Tamil Nadu government on the actions taken to regulate the firecracker industry, ensure safety measures for the workers and if solarium had been offered to families bereaved in recent fire accidents. Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Hemalatha were hearing a Public interest Litigation filed by Rajasekaran.
The PIL specifically pointed out the February 12 tragedy at a firecracker unit in Virudhunagar, that claimed around 20 lives and injured many others grievously. It added that the workers were neither adequately equipped nor trained to handle such explosives, hence leading to the tragedy. It was added that there were rising cases of many small units operating under a single license.
It was also mentioned that such accidents occur owing to the violation of basic precautionary measures and the laxity on the part of government officials who are meant to inspect the facilities.
The PIL requested the court to appoint a separate committee to probe the lapses of the February 12 accident and also to prevent future mishaps. The PIL stated that the licenses of units violating the rules must have their licenses withdrawn.
The Bench questioned the efforts of the Tamil Nadu government in preventing such incidents in future and asked for a report to be submitted in this regard, within court weeks.
Source: dnaindia.com