Sivakasi: The death of 8 people due to the blast triggered by friction at a firecracker shop exposes the chinks in the security measures adopted in the handling and storing of explosive materials. Thursday’s incident of a blast leading to fire and smoke at a cracker shop engulfing the adjacent medical scan centre was the second such incident reported in the same bypass road in recent times. The first such blast had claimed the lives of four passersby.
The scan centre opened only a few years ago whereas Suthanthirajam, the original owner of the cracker shop, had obtained a licence from the Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation (Peso) Chennai as long ago as 1996. However, the spirit behind the rules and regulations, which is that other shops should not be located close to those dealing in fireworks and crackers, was grossly violated.
Originally, the passage to the cracker shop was left open for any smoke to escape while it was covered with a false ceiling after the scan centre came up in the building. The false ceiling was the main reason why smoke choked those in the scan centre, K.K. Sund-aresan, Deputy Chief Controller of Explosives, Sivakasi told Deccan Chronicle. Hundreds of people visit the scan centre every day, but it does not even have an emergency exit, he pointed out. The original owner of the cracker shop, Suthanthirajam transferred the shop licence to the names of Anandaraj and Senbagaraman, which is also a clear violation of rule (II) of Explosive rule, 2008 which mandates that the antecedents of occupants need to be verified but officials failed to do so.
The flouting of safety norms is not to be found only in the case of Thursday’s blast. In most fire accidents reported in Sivakasi, which houses nearly 1,000 firecracker manufacturing units - the highest number in the country - safety norms are hardly ever followed. On top of this comes official apathy, said a senior government officer. “For instance, in the cracker blast that was reported in the manufacturing unit licensed by the District Revenue Officer, the original licence would had been leased out to somebody else,” he said.
The unit authorised by the DRO should have only four rooms and is permitted to manufacture crackers only upto 15 kg at a time, but the person who leased the unit produces fancy crackers, which are only allowed to be manufactured in PESO-certified factories. As there is a heavy demand for crackers during the festival seasons across the country, the brokers exploit this situation to make quick money. They supply raw materials to many such small units and force them to deliver the products within a short time, which results in fire mishaps due to mishandling of explosive materials. The same brokers also engage people in villages to prepare crackers at home by paying an advance amount, the sources revealed.
Though the police book cases against the unit licence holders mostly after blasts take place, they hardly get arrested due to loopholes in the law. “The Explosives Act 1884 was a colonial legislation which has not been amended so far to give it teeth to prevent fire accidents and to take stringent action against the firecracker manufacturers," said highly placed sources, adding that it is high time the Central Government (Ministry of Commerce & Industry) forms a high level committee to suggest changes in the Act.
As frequent fire accidents are reported at firecracker units licensed by DRO and are damaging the reputation of the entire industry, The Tamil Nadu Fireworks and Amorces Manufacturers Association submitted a representation to Ms Nirmala Sitharaman, Union minister of state for commerce & industry to entrust authority for issuing of licences for cracker manufacturing only to PESO.
“This will help in a big way to reduce the fire blast in the town,” TANFAMA members say. Meanwhile, as many fire accidents had occurred in recent months due to mishandling of crackers while loading and unloading from vehicles to shops or godowns, Sundaresan of PESO had imparted special training to labourers who were unaware of the hazardous nature of firecrackers. More than 56,000 tons of crackers are stored in cracker shops and warehouses licensed by PESO and DRO in Virudhunagar district alone.
"Even yesterday's mishap occurred mainly due to mishandling of crackers while unloading to the shop," he added. A.P. Selvarajan, director of Sri Kaliswari Fireworks Private Limited, Sivakasi said that they have been requesting the government to set up a warehouse exclusively for firecrackers on the outskirts of town.
