: Firecracker manufacturers in suspense as SC to take up hearing next month #IndiaNEWS #Business By Venkatachari JagannathanChennai, June 9 | Like a boy filled with suspense and waiting for the cracker

Firecracker manufacturers in suspense as SC to take up hearing next month #IndiaNEWS #Business
By Venkatachari JagannathanChennai, June 9 | Like a boy filled with suspense and waiting for the cracker to burst after its fuse was lit, the over 1,000 units of firecracker industry in Sivakasi in Tamil Nadu is waiting in suspense with their fingers crossed.
The final hearing of the case against the industry will be heard by the Supreme Court next month. The Supreme Courts decision will determine the fate of the industry that feeds about eight lakh families, industry officials told IANS.
The final hearing is to be held next month. We hope something good happens for the industry and the lakhs of families who are dependent on it. We feel more for the environment, but there is some other interest that is playing against the industry, A. Asaithambi, President, Sivakasi Fireworks Manufacturers Association (SFMA) told IANS.
Sivakasi in Virudhunagar district in Tamil Nadu accounts for nearly 90 per cent of the countrys firecracker production, and has 1,070 firecracker units located in and around the city.
About 300,000 workers are directly employed whereas another 500,000 workers are in the allied sectors.
Asaithambi said as per a detailed study made by the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IITK), the pollution from firecrackers ranks at 26th, way below of other sectors that contribute to the air pollution of Delhi like the automobile, thermal power stations, construction activities, stubble burning in Punjab and others.
The industry is being targeted and being made a fall guy, Asaithambi added.
According to him, crackers are burst for only two days in a year, that is during the Hindu festival Diwali.
Diwali is the only festival that is being celebrated across the country by crores of people. And firecrackers are an integral part of the festival celebration. Taking that out of the festival will dilute the core spirit, he added.
Industry officials feel that the apex court was misled about the barium nitrate chemical that is used to manufacture several traditional firecrackers like sparklers, flower pots and others.
Barium nitrate chemical is used by several industries like welding electrodes, tyres and others. Nowhere in the world the use of barium nitrate in making firecrackers has been banned, industry officials told IANS.
According to A. Murali, Executive Committee Member of SFMA and part of Lord Fireworks, the ban on barium nitrate has resulted in straight 30 per cent cut in the production.
With the apex court banning the joint crackers, the industry production is only about 40 per cent of what it used to be, Murali said.
He said the lowest denomination of joint crackers is the small 28 crackers manufactured by 80 per cent of the manufacturers.