Bhubaneswar: The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has summoned the collector and SP of Odisha’s Balasore district over the alleged death of a marine fisherman in the prohibited area of Proof and Experimental Establishment (PXE), a unit of DRDO at Chandipur.
Sources said the Commission has asked the collector and SP to appear before it in New Delhi at 11 am on August 14 along with requisite action taken report in the matter. The two officials have been summoned for reportedly failing to submit requisite reports on the incident.
Acting on a petition filed by rights activist and lawyer Radhakanta Tripathy, the NHRC had earlier issued notice on November 10, last year and sought replies from the authorities concerned and Union secretary of Ministry of Defence within four weeks.
A 35-year-old fisherman, identified as Kamal Lochan Majhi, died and another sustained injury allegedly after being hit by splinters of an artillery shell fired from the PXE on September 28, 2022.
Pursuant to the direction and subsequent reminder on May 16, the deputy director PXE had submitted a detailed report, but the collector and SP are yet to submit their replies.
The report said that the test range for conventional armaments has existed for over 125 years and operates on the basic principles of ‘safety first and always’. Claiming that several measures and mechanisms including internal SOPs are in place to ensure safe trial operations, it said, in spite of repeated warnings, many local villagers prefer to be near the sea where shells are falling in order to collect the shell and its fragments and sell them.
The test timing was chosen on that day during high tide timing to ensure a natural barrier to human entry in the test firing area/prohibited area. The test firing started at 11.20 am and concluded at 1.20 pm whereas the alleged incident is reported to have taken place well before the commencement of the test firing i.e. by 11 am, the report added.
The commission observed that despite direction and subsequent reminders, requisite reports from the district magistrate and SP of Balasore are still awaited. However, the personal appearance of the two authorities shall stand dispensed with if the requisite reports are received on or before August 7, it added.
