J&K Speaker orders audit of army ammunition depot after Pulgaon fire

Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir Assembly Speaker Kavinder Gupta today directed the state government to take steps for conducting a safety audit of all army ammunition depots in the state in order to avoid a repeat of the fire incident in Maharashtra’s Pulgaon that left 18 dead. “Government, keeping in view the incident of fire in an ammunition depot in Maharashtra, should take steps to prevent such an incident by conducting safety audit of ammunition depots in the state,” Gupta said. [caption id=“attachment_2810356” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Police jawans stand in front of the main gate of Central Ammunation Depot where a fire broke out at Pulgaon, Maharashtra. PTI[/caption] The issue was raised by National Conference MLA Devender Rana soon after the Question Hour ended. He demanded that the speaker direct the government to approach the army for getting a safety audit of all ammunition depots in the state conducted. Initially, the speaker refused to intervene in the matter. Rana said no one from the government was paying attention to the issue raised by him. “Nobody listened to what I said. You (government) will wake up when people will die,” he said. Eighteen people were yesterday killed when a massive fire broke out at one of Asia’s biggest ammunition depot in Maharashtra’s Pulgaon that houses the largest stockpile of weapons in the country.