Officials seize banned joined crackers in Sivakasi; godown of transport office sealed

Godown sealed for stocking banned joined crackers, officials inspect and lock premises, cases filed against involved parties.

Revenue officials sealed a godown of a truck transport operator here on Wednesday after a surprise check revealed that he was stocking banned joined crackers there. According to sources, during routine inspection of fireworks units and cracker shops, a team of officials, including Sivakasi Tahsildar Vadivelu and Special Tahsildar (Fireworks and Match) inspected the transport office godown in Kallipatti after they found a cargo auto parked on its premises.

When the officials checked the packed boxes, they found eight boxes of 2000-wala and 36 boxes of 1000-wala in the vehicle.

With the Supreme Court having banned the production, stocking and sale of joined crackers, the officials also started inspection of the goods stocked in the godown.

Out of some 2,700 cases of fireworks goods, the officials found that 276 cases contained various types of joined crackers like 10,000-wala, 5,000-wala, 2,000-wala and 1,000 wala.

The officials locked all the three cabins of the godowns and sealed them.

The local village administrative officer of Nedungulam, the M. Pudupatti police registered a case under the provisions of Indian Explosives Act against J. Muthukumar of Vembakottai from whose fireworks units the cargo vehicle had brought the joined crackers and against the owner of the godown, B. Viswanath Sankar of Sivakasi, and the driver of the cargo vehicle, M. Gowtham (23).