Traders join fight against sale of banned crackers

Sellers have decided to boycott the sale of banned fireworks

LUCKNOW For a green and less toxic Diwali, cracker traders in the city have thrown their weight behind the district administration to fight against the sale of banned fireworks in the state capital.

While the district administration is leaving no stone unturned in ensuring a complete ban on the sale of high-decibel, chemical containing and imported crackers, city traders have decided to boycott the sale of banned fireworks and have appealed to people to stay away from such dangerous pyrotechnics.

“Please have a safe Diwali. Ban on a particular variety of crackers is in favour of the people, so please co-operate and don’t buy the said variety of crackers as their use can have an adverse effect on the atmosphere,” said Mohammed Anees, owner of Anees Bhai Patakhe Wale, Diamond Fireworks in Moulviganj.

Anees said the cracker traders in Moulviganj and Yahiyaganj

had themselves decided to fight against the sale of banned crackers that included those that produced noise of more than 145 decibels, had chemicals and were bracketed under imported variety. However he made it clear that the crackers that were being sold under the imported tag were actually locally manufactured with Chinese labels.

He said pop-ups, match crackers, pulling fireworks and others were being sold under imported category.

Similarly, he said giant crackers, atom bombs, bullet bombs, hydro bombs and green coloured sutli bombs that were among the high decibel crackers were not being sold at shops.

The district administration has also constituted a team to keep a regular check on shops and to ensure effective implementation of cracker ban in the city markets.

On Wednesday, the district administration had also defined the cracker bursting hours and directed the officials to ensure strict implementation of rules. As per the DM’s order, the crackers would be burst only from 8pm to 10pm as defined by the Supreme Court in its recent order, whereas at all other times bursting of crackers would be banned completely.

The DM’s order further states that the sale of crackers would begin after November 5 and remain open only between 10am to 9pm.

Officials have been directed to ensure that the shops are equipped with all fire safety measures and are not selling high decibels, imported and chemical containing crackers.

The order also directs Nagar Nigam and other authorities to define 100 metre area near hospitals, nursing homes, educational institutes, court, Vidhan Bhawan, GPO and zoological garden as ‘No Cracker Zones’.