Other States - Orissa   

Rural cracker units make good profit

BERHAMPUR: Thanks to the conducive weather, the rural cracker making units at remote villages of Ganjam district have earned a good profit this Diwali.

These poor cracker makers are peasants who use this time to make some profit from cracker making without realising the lethal danger lurking behind.

It is obvious that no one remembers them till occurrence of any lethal blast or another Diwali. During this time Ravi crops are almost ready and the peasants have little work at fields. They use this time to manufacture crackers, which have a good demand in the local market along with the ones from Shivkasi.

According to Sunil Rath of Ankushpur, the blasts that kill people occur regularly yet these incidents do not deter the fire work manufacturing families during Diwali.

The other villages of the district where fire works manufacturing becomes a household industry before Diwali are Bhetanai, Nalabanta and Kharada.

The main raw materials of the fire works, the chemicals like Potash, suphur iron, zinc, aluminium are collected clandestinely from Berhampur and Kolkata.

The other major ingredients are the bamboo strips that they get from Balipadar, Bhetanai, Jagannathprasad areas. One of the major catalysts involved in the fire work manufacturing are good Sunny days, which was in plenty before Diwali this year.

Most of these poor peasants who get their whole family including women and children involved have no idea about explosive licenses. Since last year administration and police are making raids to stop these dangerous cracker manufacturing units running at homes in large scale at villages. But they have not been successful much.

It may be noted that these peasants have since decades made an innovative cracker prepared from palm leaves famous through out the State. As it is manufactured at villages near Aska, it is called ‘Aska chakra’.

This cheap cracker spins like a ‘chakra’, rises high like a rocket and explodes in mid air.

The other crackers manufactured by these rural fire works are the flower pots and bombs made with palm leaves called ‘Tala Phutki’.

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