Traders urge collector to withdraw NOC issued to Vetrivel Explosives

According to the petition by the CETUS president A Raja, the explosion took place due to the negligence and violation of norms. He said that manufacturing explosive cartridges of sizes 250 g and 500 g are not permitted in the factory but they widely manufactured it.

He pointed out that in a joint letter, 27 members of the CETUS had submitted a petition with the Chief Controller of Explosives, PESO (Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisations) in Nagpur on June 14, 2016 stating as many as 12 violations. Similarly, the production process of blasted PETN is equal to RDX explosives and while manufacturing the product there should be only five workers. But in Vetrivel Explosives, more than the permitted number of persons were allowed and this showed that the production was beyond their permitted quantity. They said there was a show cause notice served by the Chief Controller of Explosives then but the factory authorities had manipulated records. At this juncture, the members, appealed to the Collector KS Palanisamy to withdraw the NOC awarded to the factory earlier which would pave way for permanently cancelling the license and therefore to close the factory.

“Around 60 members of the organisation met Vijaya Kannan, the owner of the factory earlier and pointed out to him that he was violating certain norms but somehow he had continued to produce the explosives”, Raja claimed. The members also submitted a similar petition with District Revenue Officer K Tharpagaraj who is also the investigative officer of the blast. “We will also meet the  Minister for Industries and Commerce and also the Minister for Home affairs soon”, added Raja.