Eight months on, Harda blast victims still await govt compensation
The 50 affected families were shifted to ITI hostel, Panchayat Bhawan and Old Civil Lines police station as a temporary measure, and were supposed to move to their own houses once compensation was paid.
Bhopal/Harda: Standing in an old building of the Civil Lines police station in Harda, 55-year-old Basanti Parmar is awaiting a government compensation that would allow her to move into her own house with her family. Her house was flattened in a firecracker factory blast in Harda — nearly 150km from Bhopal — on February 6, 2024 that killed 13 people and injured another 215, besides damaging 50 houses, rendering about 250 homeless.
The 50 affected families were shifted to ITI hostel, Panchayat Bhawan and Old Civil Lines police station as a temporary measure, and were supposed to move to their own houses once compensation was paid. The National Green Tribunal central zone had ordered immediate compensation to the victims by auctioning properties of the accused and cracker factory owner Rajesh Agrawal on February 20. However, Agrawal moved the Jabalpur bench of the Madhya Pradesh high court and got a stay on the NGT order. Now, hearing has been completed in the case but the judgement is yet to be pronounced.
“It is unbearable to live with two families in a room,” Basanti Parmar, who sustained leg injuries in the blast and was operated in Indore, said. “There is no arrangement of kitchen and we are solely dependent on food that is being provided by the administration.”
Monika Chauhan, a class 10 student, who lives in ITI hostel, said, “I feel uncomfortable while living with others in a room. We have to wait in queue as there are only two toilets for 50 to 70 people.”
Read more: Harda blasts that killed 13 a ‘man-made’ tragedy: Enquiry panel
Her father Santosh Chauhan felt helpless, saying his daughter is preparing for her board examinations studying outside the building as there is so much noise in the room. Others lodged in these make-shift accommodations narrated similar stories of difficulty living in cramped rooms.
“The displaced families were demanding to shift from ITI hostel building but we are trying to give best facilities to them. The compensation issue is pending before the court,” Harda district collector Aditya Singh said. “We have completed all the necessary arrangements like pollution test of soil and water in Bairagarh area of Harda where the blast took place. After the court order, we will auction the property to give compensation to the families.”
Bheem Rajput, however, insists the government should pay them compensation so that they could reconstruct their homes without waiting for court order. “The wait for court final decision will be very long,” he added.
The opposition Congress, meanwhile, accused the BJP-led state government of giving a “step-motherly” treatment to the victims.
“They should have provided compensation and recovered the money later from auctioning. The state government first didn’t take any action against illegal firecracker factory and now mentally harassing the victims for compensation,” Congress leader and lawyer Avani Bansal said.
Even the inquiry committee, she added, has called it a man-made tragedy.
Police have arrested eight people, including factory owners Rajesh Agrawal and Somesh Agrawal, in the case.
After the blast, an inquiry was conducted by a home department committee, which found it was a “manmade tragedy” and that it did not happen out of blue. In 2015 and 2021, similar incidents happened in the factory but operation was not stopped, she alleged. “In 2021, Rajesh Agrawal was sentenced to 10 years in jail for the 2015 blast in which a man lost his life but the incident was not taken seriously,” Bansal added.
The probe panel found that hundreds of tonnes of firecrackers were manufactured illegally though the factory only had licence to use 15 kg of explosives to manufacture crackers in a month.
Harda BJP district president Rajesh Verma said, “We met them and assured of all kind of help. We also tried to give them house under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna but they refused to take ₹2.5 lakh by saying that their houses cost much more. They will get the compensation soon.”