The future for the 4000 crore-rupee firework industry headquartered in the small taluk of Sivakasi in southern Tamil Nadu seems to be going up in smoke.
With Supreme Court banning the sale of firecrackers in Delhi-NCR just 10 days before Diwali, lakhs of daily wage labourers who are employed as box makers, package loaders and fireworks makers have been dealt a crippling blow.
K Marriapan, a firework manufacturer and general secretary of Tamil Nadu fireworks and manufacturers association, said that the industry had already reduced its production by 30 per cent after SC banned the sale of crackers in Delhi in November last year. The ban was lifted in September but was reinstated last week.
The Delhi-NCR market accounts for a fourth of the cracker industry’s business, with almost 90 per cent of the sales concentrated around Diwali.
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