Hyderabad: Illegal cracker sale goes full blast

Hyderabad: The guidelines by the Telangana State Pollution Control Board (TSPCB) prohibiting the sale of synthetic firecrackers are being blatantly violated by the traders.

The TSPCB had asked the firecracker dealers to sell only green crackers but most of the city stalls are displaying small quantity of green crackers while the rest of the stocks are synthetic crackers. But surprisingly, the TSPCB claimed that along with the GHMC they are monitoring the stalls and if any stalls are found selling illegal firecrackers, strict action will be taken. But at the ground level no such action is seen so far.

There are about 1,500 firecracker stalls in the city and with just a few days left for Diwali people are seen thronging these stores. In fact, the dealers are selling more synthetic crackers than the green crackers. Boxes of crackers do not mention that they are green crackers. There are no QR codes on the packets of the so-called green crackers, said Rohini a customer at one of the stalls.

When asked, the dealers said that 90 percent of them were selling green crackers. But when asked about the TSPCB guidelines, they said that they are leaving the choice to the buyers. They also claim that the supply of green crackers was minimal.

Another major issue the administration seems to have blinked is about setting up unlicensed cracker shops in lanes and by-lanes in some colonies ignoring fire safety norms. Even the licenced shops were not following any fire safety norms like fire extinguisher and no sand was being kept in the bucket, said Suresh, a customer at a shop in Secunderabad area.

A senior officer of Telangana State Pollution Control Board (TSPCB) said at present the air quality in the state was in satisfactory category. As per the National Green Tribunal (NGT) where the air quality is moderate or satisfactory only green crackers should be allowed. He said it has been made clear to the traders that they should only sell green crackers and it is very easy to identify whether the crackers' box is consisting of green crackers or not. They come with a green logo as well as a Quick Response (QR) coding system, he added.