The Hindu : Front Page : “Set up national explosives control bureau”

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Aug 27, 2007
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“Set up national explosives control bureau”

M. Rajeev

HYDERABAD: In the light of the twin bomb blasts that claimed over 40 lives in the city, eminent forensic scientist P. Chandra Sekharan has urged the Centre to establish a “National Explosives Control Bureau (NECB)” on the lines of the Narcotics Control Bureau.

Condemning the bomb blasts, Prof. Chandra Sekharan said in a statement on Sunday that the time had come for the Centre to “tighten the web” of manufacture, possession, transport and use of explosives in the country as a whole.

Though there were rules and legislation to prevent unlawful and malicious use of explosives, terrorists and other anti-social elements were not only using explosives meant for civilian activities, but also those exclusively meant for military operations, he said.

Prof. Chandra Sekharan, who submitted proposals to the Centre for setting up the NECB and permitting the States to enact stringent laws, acknowledged that the country could not ban the production of explosives because they had their rightful uses in both civilian and military operations.

However, the serial bomb blasts starting from those in Mumbai in 1993 to the present ones in Hyderabad showed the inadequacy in the system to prevent blasts in crowded places.

Citing stringent regulations on the use of explosives that were in force in several countries, he said there were no similar provisions in any State or city in the country.

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