Cracker ban in Delhi: Traders ask for relief, say they stand to lose crores

A day after Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal announced a complete ban on cracker sale and use from November 7 to November 30, the traders association said they may end up losing to tune of Rs 300 crore in Delhi alone and demanded some alternative to clear out the green cracker stock that has been procured.

Firecracker traders in Delhi say the complete ban on fire crackers, including the “less polluting green varieties”, will break the backbone of the industry and requested the government to reconsider the decision.

Customers look to buy green crackers ahead of Diwali festival, at Dariba Kalan, in New Delhi, on Thursday, November 5, 2020. (Raj K Raj/HT PHOTO)

A day after Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal announced a complete ban on cracker sale and use from November 7 to November 30, the traders association said they may end up losing to tune of Rs 300 crore in Delhi alone and demanded some alternative to clear out the green cracker stock that has been procured.

Rajeev Jain, president of Delhi Firecrackers Dealers’ Association, said Delhi Police had started the process of granting temporary licences for selling firecrackers in Delhi around two months ago and based on the these licences, traders started booking stock from manufacturers in NCR towns.

These temporary licences are valid from two days before Diwali till two days after the festival, after which these traders cannot sell their stock.

“Traders get stock according to the conditions of the licence. The entire sale happens in the Diwali season. The government has put a ban till November 30, but who will buy crackers after that? Moreover, temporary licences expire two days after Diwali. A trader who has put his life’s savings into the business has nowhere to go,” Jain said.

“The government did not give us any warning before stealing the livelihoods of so many businessmen,” he said.

Udit Ranjan, a cracker dealer from west Delhi’s Tilak Nagar, said the industry was finally recovering after over three years. After a Supreme Court ban on the sale of traditional varieties of fireworks, the green ones had started coming into markets last year but with very limited quantities and varieties. This year, despite the Covid-19 lockdown, availability of green crackers had started increasing.

“Right when we thought that we could recover some of our losses, this ban was announced. Crackers are properly used only once a year, and throughout the year you have construction activities and vehicular pollution. During winters, you have smoke from stubble burning, but does the government have the courage to stop a farmer? Then why ruin the lives of cracker traders,” Ranjan said.

Environment minister Gopal Rai on Friday said while the government understands that traders had procured licences and cracker stock, the decision to implement the ban was taken after the spike in the number of Covid-19 cases over the last one week, which was only being made worse by the rising pollution levels.

“Between saving people’s lives and saving the economy, we decided that at this time, under the present conditions, it was more important to save lives. Covid-19 cases are on a rise and this step had to be taken,” he said.

Traders explained since storing large quantities of firecrackers in Delhi is not allowed, after obtaining licences they make advance bookings with manufacturers in NCR towns and store crackers in warehouses across the borders. This is transferred to their shops according to requirement.