Blast brings to light breaches, bribery

Even as the explosions at Om Sakthi Fireworks in Virudhunagar brought to the fore widespread violations by the fireworks industry in the region, proprietors of cracker units have now claimed that they were not the only ones to blame. The incident has brought officials, who turned a blind eye to the violations in exchange for bribes, under the scanner.

Some proprietors even drew a parallel to the mining mafia in Madurai. “Yes, we violate many rules. But it is easy to put the blame on us. Have you ever questioned the role of bureaucrats who overlook violations and collect bribes just like the officials who encouraged illegal quarrying in Madurai,” asked a member of the fireworks business community.

The proprietor of a leading fireworks unit in Sivakasi said that such violations led to frequent fire accidents during Diwali season. These mishaps, especially Wednesday’s tragedy, have also hurt the reputation of the thriving business fraternity in Sivakasi, ‘the City of Fireworks’.

Bribery has reportedly become an intrinsic part in the machinations of this industry.Government officials from various departments, be it the Controller of Explosives, the Inspectorate of Factories, Revenue Department, Fire and Rescue Service, police and local administration, allegedly collected bribes at regular intervals.

The owner of another leading cracker unit claimed, “I feel ashamed to divulge this, but we have no other option. Even for the Independence Day celebrations, revenue officials collected bribes.” Though the government has listed out over 80 rules to ensure safety at firecracker units, officials who conducted raids at these factories often collected bribes on the pretext of some violations. “They hardly spend time with us or educate us on the safety and preventive measures we need to practice,” said a businessman.

A retired government staff, who has  experience in monitoring the licensing process of cracker units, pointed out that though revenue officials may claim that they were the licensing authority only for units that used explosives only below 15 kg, they were in fact authorised to inspect the units at any time to check violations and recommend for cancellation of licence.

Other manufacturers claimed that the officials even gave out licences to those who lacked technical knowledge. These people sub-lease their units to contractors, who engage unskilled labourers, resulting in mishaps, they said.