From godowns to shops and cots, firecrackers being sold in Gurugram despite SC ban

Hindustan Times went to nine randomly chosen localities in Gurugram to check the implementation of the SC ban and found that crackers were being sold on the sly in eight of them. Crackers were found stored in a godown, general stores, and under the bed in a teenager’s room.

Despite the Supreme Court’s October 23 ban on bursting firecrackers in the national capital region (NCR), an HT spot check found that several shopkeepers in Gurugram were selling crackers. The apex court has fixed two hours on Diwali, which will be celebrated on Wednesday, from 8pm to 10pm for bursting green crackers. The court had banned use of the conventional fireworks in view of the rising air pollution in the region which has already hit severe levels and the graded response action plan (Grap).

Fireworks being sold from a cot in Sector 52, Gurugram, November 4, 2018, despite SC ban. (Yogendra Kumar/HT PHOTO)

HT went to nine randomly chosen localities to check the implementation of the SC ban and found that crackers were being sold on the sly in eight of them. Crackers were found stored in a godown, general stores, and under the bedstead of a teenager’s room. The shopkeepers are not being identified here since there were no official complaints against them.

During the spot check, HT found crackers being sold in Sector 52, Gadoli, Madanpuri, Firoz Gandhi Colony, Vikas Nagar, Ravi Nagar, Sheetla Mata Colony and Sector 5 Huda market. In Kadipur, however, nobody was found selling crackers and all three godowns were shut.

“No FIR has been filed against anyone selling crackers or bursting crackers till today evening,” Subhash Boken, Gurugram police spokesperson, said on Sunday evening.

In Gadoli, around 7.30am on Sunday, a bearded man smoking a hookah directed this correspondent “le lo andar se (take it from inside the room)”, when he asked about crackers. The man pointed to the gate of a godown, which was locked from inside. Two buyers were already inside the room. They said they do not have green crackers.

In Madanpuri, a teenager ran up a narrow concrete stairway and opened a brown wooden door before pulling out four plastic sacks filled with crackers from under his bed.

Along Basai Road, three people were found selling crackers placed on cots in Vikas Nagar and Ravi Nagar areas.

In Wazirabad village in Sector 52, two general shops were selling crackers and a third person was selling it on a cot in the street.

“There would not be any problem. I have a stock of Rs 4 lakh and I’m not facing any problem, then how will you face any problem?” the owner of a general store in Sheetla Mata Colony, which also sold crackers said, when asked if there would be any problem in buying illegal crackers.

Most of the traders said that they had got the crackers before the ban and some said they were selling leftovers from past season. Only one person said he bought the stock after the SC ban.

“We are implementing the SC order strictly. There are no crackers being sold openly and if anyone is selling it secretly, we will look into it,” Boken said.

ADC Sharma said, “For crackers, the SHOs (station house officers) have been asked to first strike at the root cause — the markets — and then ensure that reported cases of violation are dealt with strictly.”