Five days to Diwali, zero firecracker licences issued
NO CLARITY Diwali likely to be ‘crackerless’ as police told to patrol markets, issue permits to shops that sell ‘green crackers‘
NEW DELHI: The Delhi Police had not issued a single temporary licence for the sale of firecrackers till Friday, five days before Diwali is celebrated in the city.
Shops that have permanent licences have continued to remain shut since the Supreme Court order on October 23.
Delhi Police spokesperson Madhur Verma said that not a single applicant for temporary license had been able to meet the criteria put forward by the Supreme Court until Friday.
Every year, temporary licences are issued by police to retailers for sale of firecrackers ahead of Diwali.
The apex court this year, however, has ruled that sale and bursting of only ‘green firecrackers’ will be allowed this year.
The government agencies working on the green crackers prototypes have already clarified that new products will not be available in the market this Diwali.
“Delhi does not have any stock of green firecrackers, which are certified by the Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation (PESO). If shopkeepers don’t meet the guidelines, they won’t receive permission to sell crackers,” said Verma.
This effectively meant that even the few shops that have per- manent licence to sell crackers round-the-year in the popular markets in the city will continue to remain closed. “The police are filing cases and arresting people for selling crackers. We are not going to be opening our shops this Diwali,” said Narender Gupta, a fireworks seller in north Delhi’s Sadar Bazar.
Delhi Police commissioner Amulya Patnaik has asked his force to ensure that the Apex court guidelines are followed “strictly”.
“In a meeting attended by all district DCPS, the commissioner asked officers not to issue permanent licenses until PESO certified firecrackers were available in the market. He has ordered that the station house officers (SHOS) to patrol markets to prevent the sale of old stocks of firecrackers,” said a DCP, who attended the meeting.
SC Jain, a trader who holds a permanent licence in central Delhi’s Dariba Kalan, expressed apprehensions that Delhi residents may not be able to burst crackers at all this year.
“The firecracker manufacturers have told us that it could take five to six months to start supplying ‘green crackers’. We just hope we can get a small stock for our regular customers by New Year,” said Jain.
The Delhi Police had initially said that this year they would issue less than 450 temporary licences, as against 968 the previous year. With confusion prevailing about the guidelines, police have received just a handful of applications.
The central Delhi district, for example, received only 27 applications this year as against 100 the previous year. The north district, under which the Sadar Bazar wholesale market falls, received 69 applications which was nearly a third of what they received last year.
The police in these districts said they have abstained from issuing any licences because none of the applicants met the norms laid down by the Apex court. “We have asked them to submit an affidavit that they would sell only ‘green firecrackers’. No one has came forward,” said Nupur Prasad, deputy commissioner of police (north).
The firecracker manufacturers have told us that it could take five to six months to start supplying of ‘green crackers’. We just hope we can get a small stock for our regular customers by New Year at least.
MS Randhawa, deputy commissioner of police (central), said so far around 10 applicants have sought time to check if they could arrange any green firecrackers.
“We are going by the rulebook. We will issue licences only if they prove that they can meet the guidelines,” said Randhawa.
The Delhi Police on Friday issued an advertisement saying that the sale of non-green firecrackers, those with harmful metals and those emitting sound beyond a certain decibel level, will be considered illegal.
Each district police have formed multiple teams to crack down on illegal sales and have seized 1,371 kilos of firecrackers so far.
In west Delhi’s Tilak Nagar, at least 1,190kg of firecrackers have been seized and three FIRS regis-