Capital’s cracker market shines with green commitment
The city has 32 licensed shops dealing in fire crackers, but this time they are taking the green route, says convenor of fire cracker traders’ assn
The state capital’s traditional cracker market in the Rakabganj area of the Old City is witnessing a major change this year with the shops dealing in green crackers only that cause less air and noise pollution compared to the more conventional varieties.
“Indeed, this year’s Diwali is going to be a different one. Not only because of the pandemic, but also due to the non-availability of traditional crackers like laris (series of crackers), ‘mehtaab’ (another type of cracker) and others that are known for causing more pollution. We are only dealing in green crackers,” said Mohammed Moazzam, who has been running a shop for 30 seasons in the cracker market of Rakabganj. Other dealers expressed similar views.
“We are only selling branded products, that too green ones. Be it brands like Sivakasi, Premium or others, now all are manufacturing crackers that cause less pollution,” said Akhilesh Gupta, a dealer and convenor of the fire cracker traders’ association.
Gupta said the city has 32 licensed shops dealing in fire crackers, but this time they are taking the green route.
Explaining the concept, he said, “Green crackers are not green in colour, but pollute less and produce less noise as compared to the traditional crackers that were available earlier. These are perhaps the milder avatars of the traditional crackers,” Gupta said. However, he said the prices of green crackers were a little more than that of the traditional crackers.
Like previous years, this time too the administration is expected to allow fire cracker
shops in around 44 places in the city but the final list of the points where the shops would come up is yet to be released.
City magistrate Sushil Pratap Singh said, “The final list of the places where fire cracker shops would come up is yet to be released. It would be ensured that the shops deal only in the green fire crackers that cause less pollution.”