HC ruling: Cracker market wears deserted look

Aparna Banerji

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, October 15

The cracker market at Burlton Park here wore a deserted look today after the Punjab and Haryana High Court ordered the issuance of temporary licences to 20 per cent of the shopkeepers who are currently putting up shop.

Shopkeepers, meanwhile, expressed disappointment at the timing of the order “as they had lost out on the precious Sunday sales which would have fetched them rich dividends today”.

While many customers had plans to buy crackers today, they had to return disappointed due to the market being closed. Cracker traders said 80 per cent of the crackers would have been sold today ahead of Diwali if the market hadn’t been closed today. They said the ruling shall cause them to incur huge losses.

While nearly 100 cracker shopkeepers in the district had been putting up shop at Burlton Park in Jalandhar, cracker traders had closed their shops since 5 pm on Saturday evening.

Talking to The Tribune, Ravi Mahajan, a cracker trader with a stall at Burlton Park and president of the Mahavir Bajrang Bali Fireworks Association, said, “Initially, the order came as a shock to us. But it’s the ruling of the HC. What can we say? Eighty per cent of the cracker sales would have been made today because Sunday was expected to be crowded in the market. But the ruling dampened the hopes of the Sunday sales. We got so many calls from customers but had to turn these all down since we couldn’t have opened our shops today. So the market was completely closed today. We shall now be getting licences tomorrow evening by 5 pm. Hopefully, our efforts shall be to make up for the loss with brisk sales in the final few days.”