Jhabua (MP), September 14
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan today announced a slew of measures to rehabilitate those who had lost their kin in the Petlawad explosion that claimed 89 lives and asserted that main accused Rajendra Kasawa will be tracked down and arrested soon.
Visiting the tragedy-struck town for the second consecutive day despite being heckled yesterday, Chouhan announced that besides being given free education, Rs 25,000 each would be deposited as fixed deposit in the bank accounts of girls who lost their parents in blast that took place on Saturday.
Women who lost their husbands will be appointed at anganwadis and men who lost their wives will be deployed as watchmen.
“We will arrest Kasawa at any cost. He will be arrested shortly,” Chouhan said.
Chouhan has so far visited 11 villages to express solidarity with those who lost their kin in the explosion. He will visit six more villages later.
The opposition Congress had called a bandh in the district today to offer condolence to the dead and to protest the explosion. The bandh partially affected normal life in the district. Shops and markets opened after noon.
The Congress had demanded a CBI probe and alleged that Kasawa was allowed to store explosives in a busy area against the rules as he was the district head of the BJP’s Vyapar Mandal and accused Chouhan of “complete abuse and misuse of power”.
Meanwhile, BJP Madhya Pradesh president Nand Kumar Singh Chouhan refuted the Congress allegation and said Kaswa had no connection with the BJP.
Kasawa, who had stocked piles of explosives in a building close to a public place, has been absconding since the explosion occurred on Saturday.
Angry with the incident, local lawyers’ body has given a call for not defending accused in the courts.
In a related development, the police seized 69 detonators and large number of gelatin sticks from the residence of the brother of the main accused in the incident.
“The police recovered 69 detonators and two batteries from the Mahavir Colony residence of Narendra Kasawa,” Assistant Sub Inspector (ASI) Virendra Singh Bais said. Gelatin sticks, too, were recovered from the place, but their exact number is not yet known, he said.
Narendra is also absconding along with his family from Petlawad, he said.
An intensive search operation was launched following reports of large number of persons storing gelatin sticks in an illegal manner for carrying out mining and blasting rocks for construction work, he said.
