In the wake of the deadly fire that ravaged the Indian Oil Corporation’s (IOC’s) depot in Jaipur, the Madhya Pradesh governemnt has woken up to the realisation that the company’s Bhopal depot is a ‘nuisance’. The state government will soon serve a notice on the company under Section 133 of the CrPC (removal of nuisance).
Local self-governance minister and ex-CM of MP Babulal Gaur has pulled up IOC officials for ignoring his demand on removal of IOC depot with a lethal capacity of 20,000 kilolitre, immediately. He recently inspected the depot site at Nishatpura and demanded the arrangement of proper safety measures at the depot.
Surrounded by dense population, the Nishatpura depot of IOC is also in the close proximity of the HPCL depot. “We have a long pending demand of removal of this depot since the last two years. Had it been a state government case, I would have removed it in 24-hours,” Gaur said. He also instructed district collector Shivshekhar Shukla to issue a notice under Section 133. Shukla said he had asked the IOC officials to shift the depot or at least share its capacity with other locations.
The IOC depot officials assured the minister of safety arrangements and available fire retardants but could not satisfy him. Gaur has said he would soon call IOC officials as the depot is not only posing risk but leakage of petrol has also polluted the ground water in the area.
“I have instructed Bhopal Municipal Corporation to discontinue water supply in Nishatpura area as people are drinking polluted water. Now the water will be supplied through water-tankers,” he said. IOC depot manager
Prabhakar Kumar said, he was not authorised to speak about his company’s plan in this regard but he would inspect the location offered by the state government to shift the depot. “We will transfer half the quantity of the depot to other locations,” he said.