It’s not really cracker of a sale for fireworks

Tribune News Service

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Chandigarh, October 29

Diwali, the festival of lights, is a bit different from the previous years this time round. Excited children are no longer being seen hunting for crackers and even the number of heavily stocked cracker shops, lining up the markets in Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula, has declined. The number of retailers retailing in firecrackers, they say, has gone down by almost 50 per cent.

Until last year, cracker stalls boasting of high-decibel and even dangerous fireworks, would swamp the market and attract heavy 

rush of enthusiastic children. But the scene was different when The Tribune team went around the markets in the tricity, on Saturday.

A cross-section of the people, shopkeepers included, that The Tribune spoke to, attributed this phenomenon to the lack of interest among the public, mainly children, and the strict guidelines issued by the respective administrations.

Earlier, only a few shopkeepers would sell crackers from permanent shops after obtaining permission from the administration but for the past  few years, small vendors have been selling fireworks in almost every corner of the tricity, that also without any requisite permission.

“But with a continuous decline in the sale of and profit from fireworks in the last few years, this time we decided against purchasing crackers for sale at our shop,” Satish Kumar, who runs a departmental store in Sector 22, told The Tribune.

Another trader Rajinder Kumar of Mohali, who deals in wholesale and retail candles and dry fruits besides other grocery items at his outlet, cited the strict specifications framed by the authorities as the reason behind his decision against selling fireworks this year.

“As it remains no more a lucrative proposition compared to the risks involved, we are not doing this business this time,” Panchkula trader Sarup Chand told The Tribune.

While the number of retailers has gone down by almost 50 per cent this time, times are also getting tough for the wholesalers as well. “Besides a decrease in the commission given by the manufacturing companies, reduced sales have severely affected our business,” reasoned Anil Kumar, a wholesale fireworks dealer at the region’s biggest Kurali market, while adding that for the first time, they had offered heavy discounts on their cash sales.

However, despite the fall in sales and stern orders by the administration, the illegal sale and storage of firecrackers at unspecified places is still rampant, posing a great threat to the densely 

populated areas, where this business goes on unchecked.

Though the administration has specified sites for selling crackers, and even made it mandatory to procure a licence for the business, those in the business are least bothered about following the guidelines in the tricity.