Kerala temple fire: No lessons learnt from Malanada incident

Kerala, April 10: The fire at the Puttingal temple in Kerala is the worst in the history of the state. Although there were certain norms in place, it appears that lessons have not been learnt after the Malanada temple incident in 1990.

A major explosion had taken place at the Malanada temple in Kerala in which 25 people had been killed.

There were rules that had come into force on the use of firecrackers at crowded places. In fact even in the Puttingal temple incident, rules appeared to have been flouted.

It was clear that the Kollam district administration had denied permission to conduct a fire works display. The norms have been strict but still were flouted. [Kerala temple fire: Prohibitory orders violated as hospital staff cope with staff shortage]

Questions are also raised as to what the police men on duty were doing despite being aware of the rules. The police on duty continued to watch the fireworks display for three hours.

Dynamite sticks:

The probe into the incident is expected to reveal major lapses by the temple administration. What is even more ironical is the presence of dynamite sticks at the place of the incident.

There is still on clarity on why there were dynamite sticks at the venue. Officials when asked say that this would be probed. The sticks however remained unexploded.

However, officials say that there are ruling out any act of mischief at the moment. We will probe every angle to it, but as of now, it appears to be a genuine accident.

OneIndia News