SIVAKASI WEATHER
Safety course for Sivakasi workers

21-08-2015
21st August 2015

- The Times of India

Safety course for Sivakasi workers

SIVAKASI: Heres some good news for those workers involved in the countrys fireworks hub of Sivakasi in Virudhunagar district. An exclusive course, which is believed to be a first-of-its-kind, to train workers on fireworks and match works safety has been launched in the town by the Sri Kaliswari College.

The course, with grant from the University Grants Commission (UGC) is offered part-time under its community college and is expected to come as a boost to the town, which has been witnessing several fatal accidents over the past few years.

Fireworks and match works industries using highly volatile chemical mixtures are hazardous and accident prone. Accidents are frequent especially in the fireworks industry claiming at least half-a-dozen lives every year with the worst accident having taken place in Mudalipatti on September 5, 2012 which claimed 40 lives. The one-man commission formed after the accident placed various suggestions to make it safe including training the workforce in the basics of industrial safety.

According to college sources, the community college was allotted to them since they applied with this specific course on safety in fireworks and match works industry. Considering the 700 more fireworks units and hundreds of match works units nestled in this small town, the course will be ideal for the area, they said. UGC has sanctioned Rs 62 lakh as two year grant to offer the course, college authorities said.

The one-year course will be free of cost where students will get Rs 1,000 stipend per month. Minimum qualification to enrol in the course is a pass in Plus 2. Classes will be held from 3 to 6pm and the course content will include chemicals used in matches and fireworks, manufacturing methods of these chemicals, use in the production, standard operating procedures and industrial safety in fireworks and match making units.

The course will have both practical and theoretical sessions where chemistry and physics professors of Sri Kaliswari College and experts from petroleum and explosives safety organisation (PESO), fire and rescue department, labour welfare and industrial safety will take classes for the candidates. The practical classes will be held in the fireworks and match units of Sivakasi.

The course was officially inaugurated by additional director of industrial safety and welfare, A Srinivasan at a function held in Sivakasi on Sunday.

Presiding over the function, A P Selvarajan, chairman of the college and leading fireworks maker in Sivakasi said the major objective of the course is to create an accident-free fireworks and match works industry in Sivakasi. By sharing the technological knowhow with one another, accidents could be averted and the candidates taking up the course should strive towards the goal of accident-free industry, he said.


News & Events
top