Chocolate bombs at Rs 250 per packet of 100. Three-piece shells at Rs 350 each and packs of Dodoma (crackers that burst twice in quick succession) containing 500 pieces each for Rs 4,500.
A day ahead of the festival of lights, retailers from parts of Nungi and Maheshtala in South 24-Parganas were ready with their stock of banned crackers. And with their words of assurance: “the packets would come with green stickers on them”.
The stickers have been made locally from printing presses in Sealdah, a trader told this newspaper.
“The packets come with a logo. The green cracker logo. Police dhorley (if police catch) no problem. The sound is like the old variety,” said a trader from Nungi Bazar. He claimed he was one of the 100-plus authorised cracker sellers in the region.
“You just need to be a bit careful with the chocolate bombs while returning with the crackers,” he said.
Nungi is the third largest hub of firecrackers after Sivakasi and Champahati in Maheshtala, about 20km south from the heart of Kolkata.
The place has several thousand engaged in preparing firecrackers in their households.
Diwali remains the biggest draw when customers mostly from Kolkata and Howrah reach out to buy crackers, a section of traders said.
“It’s only a week-and-a-half back that we began making our homemade chocolate crackers because of the police crackdowns. Just a handful of houses have made their brand of chocolate crackers this time,” Bapi said.
“Trucks with raw materials from Sivakasi didn’t turn up in enough numbers this time. What we are selling are mostly from our old stock and they are not green crackers.”
In other areas around Maheshtala, retailers said they were ready with banned shells and Dodomas but would only sell the stuff to “genuine buyers” who were ready to spend money.
“We have just changed the packets with a logo. Maal sab ek (the products are the same as before),” a retailer in Maheshtala said reassuringly.
“Since the chocolate bombs are risky, many have stayed away from manufacturing them locally. The rest of the crackers are all available.”
A few of the retailers that the newspaper spoke to said the logos were made in exact replicas of the authorised logo for green crackers, including the QR code.
“If you place orders in advance, we will keep the crackers ready so that you don’t have to wait,” said another dealer. “While returning, take a detour from Parnasree and Behala and you are safe. Police crackdowns are mostly on those selling crackers on footpaths.”
Senior police officers from the Diamond Harbour police district said over 450kg of banned crackers were seized from parts of Budge Budge Maheshtala, Nungi and Champahati.
“Almost all the key exit points have a strong police presence and vehicles are being checked randomly in coordination with Kolkata police,” said a senior police officer.
“The number of households making banned crackers has gone down and over time, this number will go down even further.”