Political slugfest erupts over blast in Bengal firecracker factory

Kolkata, Aug 27 (IANS) Following the major blast at an illegal firecracker factory at Duttapukur in West Bengal's North 24 Parganas on Sunday in which seven people were killed and several injured, a political slugfest surfaced soon after.

The leader of the opposition in West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari claimed that the state administration was understating the casualty figure since as per the information available with him the death count was around 10.

“The owners and operators of the illegal firecracker factory and warehouse are all close confidants of the ruling Trinamool Congress and hence the administration will not take any action against them. The administration will just wait for the media attention and hullabaloo to ebb on the issue. The political interests of Trinamool Congress are associated with the operation of these illegal firecracker units,” he said.

Trinamool Congress’ state spokesman in West Bengal Kunal Ghosh said it was a wrong conception that all firecracker factories were illegal.

“The incident is tragic. But this is a matter of accident, which can happen any time. But it does not mean that all firecracker units in the state should be closed down. The livelihoods of lakhs of people are involved with this trade. There are frequent reports of such blasts at the firecracker manufacturing hub of Sivakasi in Tamil Nadu. But that did not result in the closure of the firecracker units there,” he said.

Senior Trinamool Congress leader and West Bengal Minister Rathin Ghosh said the local All India Secular Front (AISF) leader Ramzan Ali was behind running the illegal firecracker warehouse at Duttapukur where the blast took place on Sunday morning. “AISF is extremely strong in the area. Unfortunately neither we nor the local police were aware of the illegal business,” he said.

However, since the blast the local people had been protesting claiming that despite repeated complaints, the local police did not take action against the illegal firecracker factory.

Naushad Siddique, the lone AISF representative in West Bengal Assembly said that two local Trinamool Congress leaders, namely Keramat Ali and Azibar Ali were responsible for the tragedy. “They are trying to escape. They should be detained immediately and questioned. The local Trinamool Congress leadership received regular commissions from them,” he said.