With a handful of orders on the New year eve, a group of workers was making a variety of fire crackers to meet the deadline set by revellers from make-shift tents on the banks of the Penna river in Nellore.
The joy associated with the arrival of 2017 dissipated into thin air as crackers being made went up in flames leaving 15 workers dead as unlicensed cottage units operate clandestinely in the infamous Porlukatta area.
A stoic silence prevailed on seeing a stranger in their place. But slowly they started pouring out their woes one after another recalling with a shudder the accident that occurred on December 31, 2016. A group of workers, most of them tribals, says only three died. All efforts to save our co-workers went in vain, a worker with scars left by burns sustained while making crackers, tells The Hindu even as he races against time to supply them, including the famous “Nellore Guns” for the birthday bash in a house in the Magunta layout.
“We very well know the risk associated with what we do. What else we can do for a living now,” asks members of the Challa Yanadi tribal group who have been traditionally eking out a living by fishing in the river. There is no longer perennial flow in it of late thanks to the climate change. With the city fast becoming a concrete jungle almost all the water bodies have vanished, adds another worker sitting along with fellow workers amidst heaps of dangerous chemicals for making choicest crackers.
Each worker on an average earns about ₹300 to ₹400 per day working even by burning the midnight oil to meet the tight delivery schedules as the demand is not steady all through the year, adds another worker coughing in between. Most of the workers suffer chronic respiratory disease due to exposure to hazardous chemicals like sulphur nitrate, potassium nitrate, magnesium and nitrogen dioxide etc. to keep revellers in good humour, yet another worker says turning little philosophical.
“We source the chemicals from Tamil Nadu from time to time and work overtime for the customers who visit us on occasions like Diwali, weddings, birthday parties, village jataras etc., adds yet another worker mixing the chemicals with expertise gained over years but without hand gloves and other safety gadgets for making, among other cracker varieties, the high-decibel country bombs, flowerpots and rockets.
With elections round the corner, they hope to get regular orders as no rally will end without fireworks.
