The warning couldn’t have been more clear: “There has been a recurrence of incidents in which explosives are getting diverted from the manufacturing factories for unauthorised usage within India and getting lost en route, indicating that there is a review of the entire procedure of issue of licenses and also monitoring of firms dealing with explosives.”

Minutes of the ensuing meetings reveal that the Home Ministry first asked the MoD’s Ordnance Factory Board to provide the Chief Controller of Explosives with a flow-chart of methods of safety/transportation/inspection of explosive stores. However, once this was received, the Government rejected this as too cumbersome. It also asked the Intelligence Bureau to provide a blueprint for security mechanisms for checking antecedents of explosive manufacturers, transporters and end-users who were often blasters in mines and quarries.

Inundated by all this correspondence in Nagpur, Chief Controller of Explosives M Anbunathan sent a 14-point list of suggestions on augmenting systems and again outlined the absence of any response from state police and district authorities following pilferage or theft of explosives.

The Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation — the umbrella organisation which the Chief Controller heads — in a report to the Centre admitted that “instances have come to notice when commercial explosives were clandestinely diverted to separatist groups in some places... the leakage of explosives may take place with the connivance of licensed magazine (explosive stores) owners or during transportation apparently for monetary gains.”

Once North Block raised an alarm about diversion of ammonium nitrate along with pilfered commercial explosives to subversive groups, PESO was further galvanised into action.

... contd.