SIVAKASI WEATHER
Fireworks workers hold Kanji Thotti protest

21-01-2019
Fireworks workers hold Kanji Thotti protest

Thousands of fireworks industry workers, who have remained jobless since early November following the closure of 1,070 cracker units in Sivakasi, participated in a ‘Kanji Thotti’ protest staged across Virudhunagar district on Saturday, demanding the state and Union governments to address their woes.

The protest was organised in 38 different places – predominantly in Sivakasi, Sattur and Virudhunagar. During the demonstration, the workers demanded the Centre to ensure the immediate reopening of all factories or the state government to pay a relief of Rs 10,000 per month to each of them, who has been affected by the indefinite closure.

It may be recalled that from November 4, 2018 when the factories closed for Diwali, production did not resume due to stringent guidelines from the Supreme Court regarding firecracker manufacturing. Further, the apex court also instructed the factories to manufacture green fireworks.

P N Deva, Virudhunagar district general secretary of Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) claimed that the livelihood of almost 5 lakh people was directly or indirectly affected due to the closure of the factories and said that until the rules and guidelines for manufacturing green crackers were formulated, the cracker units should be allowed to function as it is.

“The next hearing in the case is on January 22, when we’ll explain our situation and put forth our demands,” he said and added that during Saturday’s protest, at least 250 people took part in each of the 38 places where they were organised.

‘Kanji thotti’ protest would be held in 20 other places in the district on Sunday as well.

Several protests have been undertaken by the workers ever since December and they warned that if their demands weren’t met, they would resort to more intense demonstrations in the near future.


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