Chennai
The cracker manufacturing industry at Sivakasi, a small town in Virudhunagar district, bears the brunt of market uncertainty. With just about two months left for Deepavali, the festival of lights, 2019 is not shaping up to be a feel-good year for many stakeholders relying on this industry. Since most of the manufacturers could hardly grasp the concept of ‘green cracker’ as stressed by the Supreme Court in 2018 to bring down pollution to healthful levels by restricting ‘barium nitrate’, the production did not see significant improvement this year, many feel.
According to Ganesan Panchurajan, president, Tamil Nadu Fireworks and Amorces Manufacturers Association (Tanfama), production has slowed down almost by 60 per centthis year.
However, he was confident that the industry would get resurrected from its dismal period and it’s time for the manufacturers to focus on green cracker production.
Now, the Tanfama has installed a new machinery and laboratory at Sivakasi, a facility to test emission level. “It costs about Rs 4 crore totally, and a part of the machinery at Rs 1.75 crore for characterisation of raw material has been installed,” Panchurajantold DT Next.
With this facility in place at Sivakasi, the manufacturers need not approach Nagpur for such testing. As per the recommendations from a team of scientists from CSIR with National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), Nagpur, as the supporting agency, additives aided by the institute in different samples had already been experimented in factory for producing the green cracker. The experiments resulted in reducing emission level by 30 per cent.
Hence, the likeminded manufacturers could avail of such new formulations developed by the scientists after entering into non-disclosure agreement (NDA) to certify the product and get nod from the Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation (Peso) for producing green crackers, he said.
A reliable source from Peso, the regulatory authority, said the new formulation, which should have to conform with the standards, is yet to be notified in gazette for approval to use it.
After a gap of about four to five months, in the wake of Deepavali last year, G. Radhakrishnan, president of The Indian Fireworks Manufacturers Association (Tifma), Sivakasi, said, “Production resumed in an unauthorised way in some units as many could not understand the ‘green cracker’ concept. Both Neeri and Peso should help this industry survive. Moreover, the demand for crackers from traders has been waning owing to a two-hour time limit for bursting.”
K Mariappan, former general secretary of Tanfama, said many buyers from northern states had placed product orders in advance, but owing to paucity of skilled workforce, the products could not be finished on time to deliver.
The buyers, who also paid money months in advance, had been spending days at Sivakasi, pestering the manufacturers to deliver what they promised.
“As there’s no alternative to rising joblessness, many labourers migrated to Tirupur, Coimbatore and Chennai to earn their livelihoods. If the migrated workforce, many of them entered into other work contract, was content with the job security there, they would not return to take up this high risk job at Sivakasi.
It is certainly hard to mobilise workers. Currently, many manufacturers could hardly manage with unskilled workforce, mostly from Bihar and Assam.
“Each of the 1,070 factories operates a fleet of buses picking up workers covering a distance of about 200km on every working day. Despite this, we feel the pinch of skilled workforce shortage. In such apparent unhealthy market, finished goods could be moved to retailers in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh at last,” he said.
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