Kolkata: The hands-on training for the firecracker manufacturers in the production of green crackers provided by NEERI (National Environmental Engineering Research Institute) is expected to be held from July 26 to 30 at the Jhowtala area under Maheshtala Police Station.
Representatives from 200 manufacturing units will be joining the five days training programme in batches.
“We have received a proposal from the Directorate of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises of Bengal for providing training to the cracker manufacturers on the production of green crackers and we will be doing the needful,” Sadhana Rayalu, Chief Scientist from NEERI who is expected to lead the training programme said.
Sukdev Naskar of Pradesh Atasbazi Byabsayee Samity said that they will be making all necessary arrangements for the training.
The state government has emphasised augmenting the production of green crackers in the state with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee forming a committee led by the Chief Secretary for identifying land parcels across the state for developing clusters of green firecrackers.
NEERI in December last year provided hands-on training and demonstration in the production of green crackers at Nandarampur village under Budge Budge police station area in South 24-Parganas.
As many as 100 odd manufacturers from different parts of the state — namely Howrah, Hooghly, Midnapore and different parts of South 24-Parganas joined the session.
The hands-on training was imparted in respect of a variety of firecrackers, including sparklers popularly known as Fuljhuri, flower pots (popularly known as Tubri) and fire torches popularly known as Rangmashal.
NEERI has developed new formulations without use of barium nitrate in the presence of additives with a consequent reduction in emissions as there has been litigation regarding the use of barium nitrate in the manufacturing of firecrackers as it causes very high pollution.
The livelihood of lakhs of people in the state is dependent on the firecracker industry and the state government is pushing those associated with the industry to manufacture only green firecrackers which is allowed by the court.