Gujarat: Army challenges order on blast compensation

AHMEDABAD: The central government has approached the Gujarat high court against the state authority's order to Bhuj Military Station to pay compensation for a person's death in a bomb blast in Bhuj town in 2003. The Centre stated that while it was an RDX explosion, the Army does not use that substance in its bombs at all.
In this case, an employee of Gujarat Water Research Development Corporation, Lal Kamwani, was killed in a bomb blast near Hamirsar lake in Bhuj on June 25, 2003. The blast, which took place in a scrap shop, killed two persons. Lalwani's widow and three children approached the Kutch district collector for Rs 35 lakh compensation alleging negligence on part of the Army authorities. It was alleged that the container, which was collected from the Army's firing range, had a live bomb that exploded when the container was opened. It was the duty of the authorities to put out a public notice before any firing practice and military officials were required to take proper care of firing range and potential substances. The blast had occurred due to the negligence of the Army authorities, it was alleged.
The district collector referred the case to sub-divisional magistrate (SDM), who passed an order on November 1, 2018 holding the military authority responsible and ordered the Camp Commandant, HQ-75, Infantry Bridge Group of Army Camp in Bhuj to pay Rs 7.98 lakh with 10% interest to the family. The Army authority through the Centre challenged the order before the high court and its counsel, Harsheel Shukla, argued that the SDM did not mention under which provision of law the compensation order was passed. It was also submitted that the Army does not have any firing range at the bottom of the Bujiyo Dungar, so it cannot be said that the blast near Hamirsar lake occurred due to the negligence of the Army authorities.
It was argued that the FSL report stated that the blast took place due to RDX, but the defence forces do not use RDX in their bombs. The military station is situated in Bhuj but its main area of operation is the Rann of Kutch and Sir Creek. There is no firing range near Bhuj for explosives like hand bombs. This fact was brought to the notice of the SDM, but was not taken into consideration. He wrongly relied on the FSL report and ignored the vital fact that TNT, and not RDX, is used in Army explosives.
Upon the contention of lack of provision of law to pass compensation order, Justice Nirzar Desai asked the state government to explain the issue on next Monday.