Match manufacturers seek permanent licence for procuring potassium chloride and sulphur

Match manufacturers seek permanent licence for purchasing raw materials, appeal for amendments in laws and crackdown on illegal imports.

Match manufacturers have appealed to the State government to give them permanent licence for purchasing potassium chloride and sulphur for making matchsticks and matchboxes instead of the existing temporary licence.

 In a petition submitted to Chief Secretary Shivdas Meena recently, the National Small Match Manufacturers’ Association office-bearers said the match manufacturers of Thoothukudi, Virudhhunagar, Vellore and Dharmapuri districts were buying potassium chloride and sulphur, the raw materials, from Puducherry all these years for making matchsticks despite several practical difficulties. Match manufacturers holding temporary licence alone can buy these chemicals for making matchsticks.

 “Though we are not misusing this licence for buying potassium chloride and sulphur for any unlawful purpose in the past 100 years, we are being given only temporary licence for purchasing these chemicals. Hence, the Tamil Nadu government should consider giving us permanent licence for purchasing these chemicals from Puducherry, which will save us a lot of time, energy and resources,” said M. Paramasivam, president of the Association.

 He requested the Chief Secretary to make adequate amendments in the existing laws for releasing the owners of match manufacturing units in case of any minor accidents in their factories. “As of now, the owners are arrested under non-bailable sections of law, which should be changed. We should be given ‘station bail’ in the event of arrest after the minor accidents in our units,” Mr. Paramasivam said.

The match manufacturers also appealed to Mr. Meena to initiate tough measures to crush the smuggling of illegally imported use-and-throw plastic cigar lighters into Tamil Nadu from China. The storage, sale and use of these one-time cigar lighters had been banned in Andaman and Nicobar islands through a gazette notification. “On similar lines, we expect a notification from the Tamil Nadu government,” said Mr. Paramasivam.

The Association has also submitted petitions to Rural Industries Minister T.M. Anbarasan and Thoothukudi MP Kanimozhi to save the industry and a few lakh workers, mostly women.  “But there has been no impact so far, even after these petitions as the Chinese plastic cigar lighters are easily available in every petty shop of Tamil Nadu. So, we have submitted the petition to the Chief Secretary with the hope that the topmost bureaucrat of Tamil Nadu will save us by persuading the government for issuing a gazette notification,” Mr. Paramasivam said.