Gandhinagar, Nov 5 (IANS): Following the Pirana-Piplaj blast, which claimed 12 lives on Wednesday in Ahmedabad, the state government has ordered drives across the state to identify unauthorised warehouses, especially where hazardous chemicals are stored and carry out stringent legal action against where such activities are found.

After the tragic chemical blast at a warehouse in Ahmedabad which claimed 12 innocent lives and injuring similar others came to light, the Gujarat government's Labour and Employment department has initiated steps to curb such incidents.

The Additional Chief Secretary (ACS), Labour and Employment, Vipul Mitra, who has been entrusted to investigate the Pirana-Piplaj blast incident, has ordered the Ahmedabad Municipal Commissioner as well as the municipal commissioners of all the municipal corporations in Gujarat, to carry out special drives to identify unauthorised warehouses where hazardous chemicals are being stored.

For these drives, multi department teams will be formed to survey all such warehouses within municipal limits in a time-bound manner. The chairman of the Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB) and the Commissioner of Police (CP) in major cities have been requested by the ACS to put in their teams to identify such places. The GPCB and CPs have been told to get aid from the Director and the Member Secretary of the Directorate of Industrial Safety and Health (DISH).

Moreover, the collector of Ahmedabad has been requested to co-ordinate the payment of compensation to the kin of the deceased and the injured in the Pirana-Piplaj incident, as declared by Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani.

Meanwhile, the Ahmedabad Narol police is interrogating one Bhuta Bharwad, owner of the building where the incident took place on Wednesday.