Firing range deaths expose threat to illegal residents

PUNE, AUG 5: The death of four teenagers in Sunday's explosion at Dattanagar near Dighi firing range on Bhosari-Alandi road has raised seve...

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PUNE, AUG 5: The death of four teenagers in Sunday’s explosion at Dattanagar near Dighi firing range on Bhosari-Alandi road has raised several questions regarding encroachments on the restricted firing zone.

While preliminary investigations have revealed that the blast was caused by a live mortar shell manufactured at the Ordnance Factory in March, how it found its way to the field has not yet been established.

Interrogation of the injured boys has proved that one of the deceased, 17-year-old Raghunath alias Pintya Manik Pawar, had found the shell while strolling in the areas surrounding the Ordnance Factory’s test firing range on Sunday morning.

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The disclosure has raised a suspicion that Raghunath had encroached on the firing range then.

“Raghunath, who buried the shell near his house on Sunday morning, summoned us children to `play’ with it in the afternoon,” the injured children from his neighbourhood said. The shell exploded when Raghunath started crushing it after telling the children that it would produce a crackling sound like a firecracker, according to six-year-old Eknath Sarjerao Khese, one of the injured who has been admitted to the hospital.

The head of the shell was found buried in the crater formed due to the blast. The Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad of Pune police suspects that the shell weighed five pounds.

This means it could have had a destructive effect on at least a 60 feet range had the head not been buried in the ground.

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Meanwhile, inquiries revealed that the area adjacent to Dighi Magazine where the blast took place was part of the Red Zone till 1993. Though the demarcations of the Red Zone were changed and the area was freed from red zone restrictions in 1993, the government notification in this connection is yet to be issued, revealed local corporator Pandit Gawli. Initially the boundaries of the Red Zone area were drawn at a distance of 1,150 meters from Dighi Magazine and the firing range, he said. The military has acquired about 30 to 40 acres of land in and around the firing range, but the rest of the area is privately owned, Gawli said.

More than 25,000 houses have been constructed illegally in the area, he said, adding that the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation which collects tax from house owners had even constructed roads in the area.

According to Gawli, following the house owners demand to free the land from regulations, the government decided to change the demarcations of the Red Zone area and reduced its limits to 760 metres. However, he added, about 300 houses in Navnath Nagar and Chakrapani Vasahet were located in the restricted areas. A visit to the Red Zone area also revealed that construction of at least five new buildings were on in the restricted zone.

Sadanand Naik, a Dattanagar resident, said construction of houses in the prohibited red zone area started around one and a half de cades ago when the population in the twin township of Pimpri-Chinchwad started increasing. Since construction of houses was prohibited in the red zone, the land was available at a cheaper rate and a large number of lower middle class people purchased it.