Two days after an explosion at a cracker unit in Sivakasi left six workers dead and an equal number injured, government officials sealed a fireworks factory in Vishwanatham here on Tuesday for violating various regulations, which they detected during a surprise inspection. Immediately after the explosion at Rathna Fireworks in Naranapuram village on Sunday, Collector T N Hariharan had announced that S G Rangan, Sivakasi Revenue Divisional Officer (RDO), would lead five teams of officials to inspect cracker units in Virudhunagar district.
RDO Rangan and special tahsildar (matches inspection) V Ramachandran carried out the surprise inspection at the Guru Traders unit in Vishwanatham, which was owned by one Jhansi Rani. The inspection revealed that the unit was in violation of regulations of the Explosives Act, 1884 and Explosives Rules, 2008. The unit was found to have almost 100 personnel though it had space for only 50 workers. Moreover, the officials noticed that several workers were manufacturing crackers under a tree even though the rules dictated that this could be done only in specially-configured rooms. Incidentally, the workers involved in the Naranapuram blast too were found to be mixing chemicals outdoors. The officials ordered that the unit be sealed temporarily.
An official of the Revenue Department, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that these kind of violations occurred as cracker units were often let out to contractors and the contract workers did not have enough awareness on procedures. He explained that most of the employees were daily wage earners and did not go for training programmes organised by government agencies as they would lose a day’s pay. The official noted that fixing a minimum wage for such contract workers would serve as an incentive for them to undergo training programmes.
The inspections led by the RDO started on Monday. Nine units were inspected on Monday, none of which were found to be in violation of rules.
Blast toll rises to 6
A 37-year-old contract worker, who was injured in an explosion at Rathna Fireworks in Sivakasi on Sunday, died at the Government Rajaji Hospital in Madurai on Tuesday morning. The death of Paungandhi, a native of Naranpuram, takes the death toll in the incident to six.