Irregular supply of kerosene, the fuel used for bangle soldering, takes toll.
Bangles are an important product from the Firozabad glass cluster. Bangle makers, however, could soon run out of business if the supply of kerosene to them is not regularised.
Kerosense is the fuel used in soldering units that are used to convert a continuous spiral of coloured glass into individual pieces joined together at one end to form bangles.
Till 1992, bangle units received kerosene under an industrial quota. However, it was inexplicably withdrawn by the government and since then the industry's demand for a kerosene quota has found no takers.
Glass industry sources said that bangle making and baking units could use anything ranging from wood to coal to natural gas as fuel, the operation of bangle soldering units was completely dependent on the availability of kerosene. Each worker solders as many as 2000 bangles in one shift of 8-10 hours and this process requires a continuously burning kerosene lamp to provide the necessary heat for soldering.
Though most of the units are able to arrange fuel through the blackmarket, its cost is as high as Rs 35-40 per litre (almost 2-3 times the market cost). Considering a daily requirement of about 25 kilolitre (kl) of kerosene for the 140-150 bangle soldering units, the additional expenditure on fuel has been slowly killing this industry. Already around 35 units have closed over the past decade.
To revive these units, which employ about 150,000 people of Firozabad and nearby towns, the Firozabad district administration has requested the state government to re-allocate the industrial quota of 500 kilolitre of kerosene per month for the bangle soldering units.
Sudhir Kumar Srivastava, general manager, district industrial centre, Firozabad, said the Firozabad district Magistrate Amit Gupta had sent a request to the Principal Secretary (small-scale industries) B Rajgopalan for the allocation of industrial quota, emphasising the hardships faced by the industry due to the lack of fuel.
He said that the fuel crisis was also discussed last month in the meeting of Udyog Bandhu, following which, the district supply officer has also been directed to initiate discussions with petroleum companies to obtain kerosene supply on the discretion of the petro companies. This supply, though, was expected to be slightly expensive, carrying a price tag as high as Rs 32 per litre. Srivastava claimed that the only permanent solution to the industry’s woes was the state government agreeing to allot a industrial quota for the soldering units and hopefully, a decision in this matter will be taken within the coming few months, saving almost 50 thousand families from the threat of unemployment.
Established in the 15th century, the Firozabad glass industry is one of the the country’s biggest glass industry cluster, with nearly 2 million people employed in manufacturing various items out of glass, ranging from electric bulbs and chandeliers to multicolored bangles, generating an annual domestic and export business of over Rs 800 crore.
It is estimated that a single bangle passes through as many as 45-50 hands before it is transformed from a mere lump of glass waste into the dazzling piece of disposable jewellery that has earned this small town located just 50 km away from Agra, the name, Suhag Nagri, as it caters to the entire domestic demand for this veritable symbol of married women in India.
