NGT forms 8-member committee to probe Virudhunagar fire incident

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Thursday constituted an eight-member committee, headed by a former high court judge, to submit a report on the Virudhunagar fire incident last week.

An NGT bench headed by Chairperson Justice A K Goel issued notices to the Tamil Nadu government, Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), State Pollution Control Board (SPCB), Virudhunagar District Magistrate, and Sree Mariyammal Fireworks factory.

"The committee has been tasked with submitting a report on the sequence of the events, causes of failure, persons and authorities responsible, the extent of damage to life; human and non-human, public health, and environment, steps to be taken for compensation of victims and restitution of the damaged property and environment, and remedial measures to prevent the recurrence," stated an official statement.

"The Committee may visit the site preferably within one week and give its report within one month," the statement added.

A massive fire broke out in a firecracker factory in Tamil Nadu's Virudhunagar last week leaving at least 19 people dead and another 36 people injured in the incident.

An ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh each had been approved from the Prime Minister Office's National Relief Fund (PMNRF) for the next of kin of those who lost their lives due to a fire in Tamil Nadu's Virudhunagar. Rs 50,000 had been approved for those who were critically injured in the incident.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palswami had additionally announced ex-gratia amounts of Rs 3 lakhs each to the kin of the deceased and Rs 1 lakh each to the critically injured in the fire incident.

The members of the committee are; Justice K Kannan, former Judge of Punjab and Haryana, and Madras High Courts, the representative of MoEF&CC, representative of CPCB, representative of State Disaster Management, Head of the Chemical Engineering Department of the IIT Chennai, Nominee of Chief Control of Explosives, Nagpur, Nominee of Petroleum and Explosives Safety Orgzation, Delhi, and Chief Inspector of Factories, Tamil Nadu - Member.

( With inputs from ANI )