Revenue officials sealed a godown of a truck transport operator here on Wednesday after a surprise check revealed that he was stocking banned joined crackers there. According to sources, during routine inspection of fireworks units and cracker shops, a team of officials, including Sivakasi Tahsildar Vadivelu and Special Tahsildar (Fireworks and Match) inspected the transport office godown in Kallipatti after they found a cargo auto parked on its premises.
When the officials checked the packed boxes, they found eight boxes of 2000-wala and 36 boxes of 1000-wala in the vehicle.
With the Supreme Court having banned the production, stocking and sale of joined crackers, the officials also started inspection of the goods stocked in the godown.
Out of some 2,700 cases of fireworks goods, the officials found that 276 cases contained various types of joined crackers like 10,000-wala, 5,000-wala, 2,000-wala and 1,000 wala.
The officials locked all the three cabins of the godowns and sealed them.
The local village administrative officer of Nedungulam, the M. Pudupatti police registered a case under the provisions of Indian Explosives Act against J. Muthukumar of Vembakottai from whose fireworks units the cargo vehicle had brought the joined crackers and against the owner of the godown, B. Viswanath Sankar of Sivakasi, and the driver of the cargo vehicle, M. Gowtham (23).
Association calls for indefinite strike against ‘partial’ action
Meanwhile, some 200 fireworks units, affiliated to Tamilan Fireworks and Amorces Manufacturers’ Association (TAFMA) will go on indefinite strike from Friday protesting against ‘double standards’ adopted by the district adminsitration in taking action against fireworks units violating safety measures.
A statement said that the administration was taking unilateral action against fireworks units which were making joined crackers citing that the Supreme Court had banned it.
“How many factories have been sealed so far on charge of using barium nitrate, which is also prohibited by the Apex Court?” a statement said.
The association also charged that despite having full knowledge that certain varieties of fireworks goods cannot be manufactured without barium nitrate, no action is initiated against such factories.
“With the slogan of danger-free Sivakasi, the administration was not at all inspecting those units making aerial (fancy) fireworks using barium nitrate,” the statement said.
The officials were ignorant of the definition of joined crackers which has been banned by the Supreme Court.
The aerial crackers with multiple shots like 30 shots, 60 shots and 240 shots also falls under the definition of joined crackers, the association secretary, U. Manikandan said adding that action is taken only against smaller factories making joined crackers and not against bigger factories making aerial crackers.
Some 2,000 workers will lose jobs in the wake of the strike by TAFMA, he added.
