Odisha News, Odisha Latest news, Odisha Daily - OrissaPOST
  • Home
  • Trending
  • State
  • Metro
  • National
  • International
  • Business
  • Feature
  • Entertainment
  • Sports
  • More..
    • Odisha Special
    • Editorial
    • Opinion
    • Careers
    • Sci-Tech
    • Timeout
    • Horoscope
    • Today’s Pic
  • Video
  • Epaper
  • News in Odia
  • Home
  • Trending
  • State
  • Metro
  • National
  • International
  • Business
  • Feature
  • Entertainment
  • Sports
  • More..
    • Odisha Special
    • Editorial
    • Opinion
    • Careers
    • Sci-Tech
    • Timeout
    • Horoscope
    • Today’s Pic
  • Video
  • Epaper
  • News in Odia
No Result
View All Result
OrissaPOST - Odisha Latest news, English Daily -
No Result
View All Result

Batala blast: Death toll rises to 23 in ‘illegal’ cracker factory, rescue operations underway

PTI
Updated: September 5th, 2019, 13:56 IST
in National, Top Stories
0
Teams of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) were trying to find out any person still trapped under the debris, officials said.

Teams of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) were trying to find out any person still trapped under the debris, officials said.

Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on WhatsAppShare on Linkedin

Batala (Punjab): The Punjab police Thursday said the cracker factory in which the blast took place here killing 23 people and injuring 27 was ‘illegal’ even as rescue operations continued at the explosion site.

Teams of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) were trying to find out any person still trapped under the debris, officials said.

Also Read

NSA Doval

Doval disputes foreign disinformation, says Operation Sindoor caused no Indian damage

2 hours ago
NSA-Ajit Doval

After 22 years of development, India set for largest workforce by 2047: Doval

2 hours ago

Batala Senior Superintendent of Police Opinderjit Singh told media, “The factory was working illegally. I didn’t came to know about it earlier, otherwise it would have been closed”.

“Now we are checking the licences of all the factories in the Batala city,” he added.

Meanwhile, tempers ran high at civil hospital here where some family members of victims sought action against higher officials for failing to ensure closure of the firecracker factory despite repeated requests.

They also raised slogans against the district administration while seeking registration of murder case against top officials for allowing the factory to operate illegally from the thickly populated Guru Ram Das colony on the Jalandhar road.

“What inquiry will the government do now…a case of murder should be registered against top officials for allowing the factory to run illegally,” one of the protester said.

Twenty-three people were killed in a blast at the firecracker factory located in a residential area on Jalandhar road in Batala of Gurdaspur district on Wednesday around 4 pm.

The explosion had also damaged buildings nearby, shattering windowpanes and even bringing down the roofs of a couple of them. Several four-wheelers were also damaged because of the impact. The explosion was heard kilometres away, local residents said.

Several factory workers, some family members of the factory owner and a few passersby were killed in the explosion, officials said. Seven critically injured were referred to Amritsar medical college.

After the post mortem, the bodies will be handed over to the families of victims, they said.

A forensic team from Chandigarh will soon reach the site to take samples, officials said.

Significantly, in 2017, a blast had taken place in the same factory killing one worker and injuring three others, locals said, claiming several complaints were submitted to the district administration in the past for the closure of the factory, but to no avail.

Punjab government has already ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incident.

Rural Development and Panchayat Minister Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa on Wednesday night met the injured in local hospital.

An ex gratia of Rs 2 lakh for the kin of the each deceased and Rs 50,000 for the each of the seven severely injured had already been announced.

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Wednesday had directed both the civil and police administration to extend all possible help to the victims’ families in this hour of grief.

He had also directed the Deputy Commissioner to provide the best possible treatment to the injured free of cost besides asking the SSP to supervise the evacuation operations being carried out by the NDRF team.

The Gurdaspur district administration is under scanner for negligence giving the free run to cracker factory owner operating in busiest market in Ram Das colony near Hansali Bridge in Batala.

There were four multi-storey cracker shops after the family business of late Satnam Singh split in his four sons, including Jaspal Singh, Paramjit Singh, Harbhajan Singh and Ravil Singh, in the market.

All the factory-cum shops except Jaspal Singh’s were operating illegally as no licenses were issued. Being an eldest of his family, Jaspal got his father’s permit which was not renewed by the administration, police said.

Baljit Singh, key witness in blast case and close aide of cracker factory, said that the family of Satnam Singh have lived there in house, built backside the shop and stock of raw material were often hidden in house to make police away from any action.

He said that the owners have stocked the bulk quantity of material before festivals like Dusherra, Gurpurab and Diwali as the supply of crackers delivered not only in Punjab but in Himachal Pradesh too.

Deputy Commissioner Gurdaspur Vipul Ujwal said that as many as 19 dead bodies have identified, out of which five belonged to same family of cracker owner.

They were identified as Surinder Singh, Paramjit Singh, Onkar Singh, Vikramjit Singh, and Rajinderpal Singh of same family members besides, workers who died in blast included Shamlal, Mukha, Balkar Singh, Lakha Singh, Balkar alias bobby, Tarlok Singh, Sonu, Manpreet Singh, Alia , Vinay and  Lali.

Three civilians casualties were Bimala Rani, Ramandeep Kaur and Pahulpreet Singh of Ram Das colony.

The locality where the incident happened had a Gurudwara, Balmiki Mandir and a convent school due to which the area had usually seen crowded all the time.

Raghubir Singh Sandhu, president, Bar association Batala, who is residing in Guru Ram Das colony where factory exists said that “it is rule of anarchy, my complaints were of no avail.”

“I along with other residents of locality requested the administration to shift this fire cracker factory outside the city after 2017 incident but all in vein”.

After the Januray 2017 blast, locality members and owners of the factory had came to an agreement to shift the factory outside the Batala and had only offices in the market for general dealing but after few months, the situation was same.

PTI

Tags: Batala blastcracker factoryPunjabrescue underway
ShareTweetSendShare
Suggest A Correction

Enter your email to get our daily news in your inbox.

 

OrissaPOST epaper Sunday POST OrissaPOST epaper

Click Here: Plastic Free Odisha

#MyPaperBagChallenge

Shreyanshu Bal

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Sarfraz Ahmad

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Subhajyoti Mohanty

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Sisirkumar Maharana

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Ramakanta Sahoo

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Sibarama Khotei

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Diptiranjan Biswal

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Manas Samanta

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Spinoj Pattnaik

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Pitabas Tripathy

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Ramakanta Sahoo

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

D Rama Rao

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Akriti Negi

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Ankita Balabantray

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Jyotshna Mayee Pattnaik

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Arya Ayushman

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Rajashree Manasa Mohanty

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Bijswajit Pradhan

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Swarit Praharaj

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Debasis Mohanty

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Saishree Satyarupa

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Jhili Jena

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Adrita Bhattacharya

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Aishwarya Ranjan Mohanty

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Pragyan Priyambada

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Sitakanta Mohanty

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Smitarani Sahoo

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Sarmistha Nayak

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Chinmay Kumar Routray

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Mrutyunjaya Behera

December 12, 2019

Archives

Editorial

Toll Sucks Life

Nitin Gadkari
July 9, 2025

Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari took everyone by surprise when at a function in Nagpur, where the...

Read more

Bloodline

BJP-Shiv Sena
July 8, 2025

The coming together of the Thackeray cousins – Raj Thackeray, chief of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) and Shiv Sena...

Read more

Acknowledge Failure

Deputy Chief of Army Staff Lieutenant General Rahul R Singh
July 7, 2025

Deputy Chief of Army Staff Lieutenant General Rahul R Singh’s candid revelations about Operation Sindoor at a FICCI event ‘New...

Read more

Politics of Philosophy

AAKAR PATEL
July 6, 2025

The BJP’s constitution (Article 3) says, “Integral Humanism shall be the philosophy of the party.” The party’s membership form has...

Read more
  • Home
  • State
  • Metro
  • National
  • International
  • Business
  • Editorial
  • Opinion
  • Sports
  • About Us
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • Jobs
Developed By Ratna Technology

© 2024 All rights Reserved by OrissaPOST

  • News in Odia
  • Orissa POST Epaper
  • Video
  • Home
  • Trending
  • Metro
  • State
  • Odisha Special
  • National
  • International
  • Sports
  • Business
  • Editorial
  • Entertainment
  • Horoscope
  • Careers
  • Feature
  • Today’s Pic
  • Opinion
  • Sci-Tech
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Jobs

© 2024 All rights Reserved by OrissaPOST

    • News in Odia
    • Orissa POST Epaper
    • Video
    • Home
    • Trending
    • Metro
    • State
    • Odisha Special
    • National
    • International
    • Sports
    • Business
    • Editorial
    • Entertainment
    • Horoscope
    • Careers
    • Feature
    • Today’s Pic
    • Opinion
    • Sci-Tech
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Jobs

    © 2024 All rights Reserved by OrissaPOST