The announcements made by various states governments prohibiting the sale and usage of firecrackers this Deepavali season and Karthika Purnima shocks and upsets Hundreds of families in Virudhunagar. The people are already staring at poverty owing to the pandemic and the associated lockdown, if the sale of crackers is not up to the mark these families will be abjected to Poverty. Rajasthan, West Bengal, Odisha, and Haryana have announced a ban on firecrackers till now. 

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Elangovan of fireworks traders association says, "The firecracker industry is a fragile ecosystem. A damage caused to any one part of it can have debilitating impact on a large number of families across the nation". The biggest damage by the ban is to Sivakasi, the products are already shipped away to various states and are awaiting their payment from traders. North Indian Wholesale buyers, dealers, and local shopkeepers are also in the list to get hit hard this year. Elangovan says, in Sivakasi, the business is done on a credit-based system. “We receive payments after the festival, which is used to pay off bonus for workers, loans, and to invest in the business for the year ahead.”

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The direct employment in Sivakasi is 2 Lakh persons and to be noted Rajasthan is one of the major market that contributes 12% of overall sales. Ganesan Panjurajan of another fireworks manufacturers association said the factory has followed every rule to manufacture green fireworks this year. The green crackers adhering to the formula approved by Council of Scientific & Industrial Research - National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (CSIR-NEERI) and Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation (PESO) were manufactured. He added, “If more States follow suit, this Deepavali will be a dark one for us". The Association president also added the The primary pollutant Sulphur dioxide is emitted due to the mixing of sulphur during manufacturing, is not added in green crackers, certified as ‘Environment-friendly’ was manufactured in Sivakasi unlike the Chinese firecrackers are the real culprits causing pollution. 

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