Sunday, Sep 22, 2002
Sunday, Sep 22, 2002 |
| Southern States | ||
|
News:
Front Page |
National |
Southern States |
Other States |
International |
Opinion |
Business |
Sport |
Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary | Southern States
-
Tamil Nadu
By A.V.Ragunathan
Going by the versions of the locals, the illegal trade in explosives might even extend to Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and the Union Territory of Pondicherry. The people in these hamlets are mostly agricultural labourers and mining workers. With drought looming large in this region, many farm hands have taken to either mining or manufacture of firecrackers, mostly the banned onion bombs. They are required to stay at one place to produce crackers on a daily-wage basis. It is learnt that each male worker has been getting Rs. 100 daily for making a specified quantity of onion bombs, with gunpowder, chemicals and pebbles, all wrapped in paper. For procurement of chemicals, the so-called employers have ``contacts'' in Chennai, Guntur in Andhra Pradesh, Bangalore and Pondicherry. The villagers seem to be familiar with the places where mines (where explosives are being used) are located in Andhra Pradesh. Many of them, including women, have gone there on several occasions as workers. The missing Arayi (50), who is suspected to have supplied onion bombs to Ravi— who along with his brother stored crackers in a house at Athur, where the explosion occurred— was said to have been frequenting these places. It became easy for the likes of Arayi to lure unemployed farm workers, who, for fear of becoming bonded labourers to miners in other States, chose to stay back in the villages. For women like Vadamalli alias Pappa, cracker manufacture is not a dangerous affair. They have been carrying on the trade as a cottage industry, similar to agarbathi making and beedi rolling. Moreover, they are not directly handling explosives. Their task is to roll papers to size, and the ``employers,'' would fill these with gunpowder or other explosive substances. The entire manufacturing process seemed to have gone on smoothly, without any hiccup till the Athur blast. As this work entailed their livelihood and in order to safeguard their spouses from law, the women feigned ignorance. Be it Chinnammal or Malliga, they remain tightlipped about the nature of job of their husbands (who are now behind bars). However, the women admit that their husbands were working for Arayi for the past one month. The question upper most in the minds of people in the neighbouring places is how the authorities have lost sight of the ``traditional ties'', which exist between these hamlets and other places in firecracker or gundpowder dealings. None of the houses in these hamlets could boast of any safety measures to cope with any eventuality arising from handling of explosive substances.
Printer friendly
page
News:
Front Page |
National |
Southern States |
Other States |
International |
Opinion |
Business |
Sport |
Miscellaneous |
|
|
|
The Hindu Group: Home | About Us | Copyright | Archives | Contacts | Subscription Group Sites: The Hindu | Business Line | The Sportstar | Frontline | Home |
Copyright © 2002, The
Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of
this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of
The Hindu
|
