Ammunition depots functioning with risk of fire accidents: CAG report

Nagpur, June 1: The fire at the Central Ammunition Depot (CAD) at Pulgaon, Maharashtra which killed 16 could have been much worse.

It was the heroic efforts by many including the civilians which contained the fire to the shed. The time now however is to introspect and ensure that fire safety norms are followed correctly.

A probe has been constituted into the incident. For now the exact reason for the fire is not known and it would not be right to speculate either at this point, said an officer at Pulgaon.

However it is now time to take note of the audit done by the Comptroller and Auditor General in which it was stated that there have been deficiencies in ammunition management.

Deficiencies in ammunition management:

Since the past 15 years there have been at least 6 major fires in ammunition storage houses.

This had led to an audit being conducted by the Comptroller and Auditor General for the period between 2008 to 2012. There were strong observations that had been made where fire safety was concerned.

In the report it was stated, " deficiency of firefighting staff and main firefighting equipment during 2008-13 was 47 and 65 per cent, respectively, in eight selected depots.

We observed that the step for revision of Firefighting staff and Equipment was initiated by DGOS in November 2011, but the same could not be finalized till 31 March 2013.

Thus, the depots were functioning with risk of fire accident as the equipment and manpower are not held as per requirement/authorization, as these depots were holding depots of ammunition.

OneIndia News