Kerala temple fire: PESO report shows 7 major violations

Thiruvananthapuram, Apr 13: The union government will come out with a stringent set of guidelines following a report submitted by the Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation (PESO) with regard to the Puttingal Temple tragedy in which 113 people died.

The PESO has come out with 7 key findings relating to the Kerala temple tragedy which took place last Sunday.

The report has been submitted to the Union Government. The government is likely to send its recommendations on safety issues to every state government which in turn would have to hand it over to all the district authorities who will have to ensure strict implementation of the same.

The findings:

• The store house of the temple was not considered in accordance with the norms. A distance of at least 100 feet ought to have been maintained between the firecracker site and the storage room where the explosives were stored.

• There was no emergency disaster plan in place. The police were not ready to execute any disaster management plan despite there being such a big crowd.

• The number of firecrackers used and stored were above the permissible limit.

• The crackers that were manufactured were clearly above the stipulated size. More chemicals were filled for higher impact.

• A barrel used to burst the crackers ought to have been fixed firmly to the ground. However in this case the barrel was not fixed properly and since its position moved, it caused immense damage.

• The Amittu variety of crackers used in the temple were ten times bigger than the stipulated size.

• No attempts were made by the temple authorities to light up the area and the firecracker show went on despite a ban on it after 10 PM as per the directive of the Supreme Court of India.

OneIndia News