About 90 per cent of the fireworks showcased in Tallah, Behala and Kalilapur Bazi Bazars are illegal, suggests a survey of green platform Sabuj Mancha, based on whose petition Calcutta High Court recently directed that only green fireworks can be sold from these bazaars.
A joint team consisting of state pollution control board, police and Union government departments National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) and Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organization (PESO) inspected the markets on Friday and Saturday and confiscated 23kg of “doubtful” fireworks from their sample assessment.
“We found several illegal varieties and have asked them to be sent to NEERI Nagpur for further testing,” said a member of the team that went to Tallah Park for inspection.
“Prior to the joint team’s visit, we had prosecuted a few traders and confiscated illegal fireworks from the Tallah bazaar as found through our QR code assessment through NEERI app,” said a senior police officer in charge of the Bazi Bazars.
The Sabuj Mancha team, consisting of environmentalists Sudipta Bhattacharya and Samrat Mondal, scanned randomly about 15 stalls in three markets and found only eight valid fireworks types among around 80 types assessed.
“We made sample checking of about 80 types primarily through CSIR-NEERI QR code app and also by Google scanner, and found at least 90 per cent were illegal” said Bhattacharya.
“We found that while some fireworks do not have any QR codes at all, rest are shown to have ‘invalid QR code’ by the CSIR NEERI app” said Mondal.
“We have tried our best to convince the traders to sell only legal green fireworks. But in absence of such varieties many are selling illegal fireworks and they include both old unsold fireworks and varieties brought from Sivakasi,” an organiser of the Bazi Bazars said.
“How could the bazaars start without the mandatory monitoring of the joint team as directed in the October 11 high court order; how could such a high volume of illegal fireworks be openly showcased and sold in the so-called legal markets being organised under police patronage?” asked Naba Dutta of Sabuj Mancha.
Dutta also expressed surprise why the joint committee did not take stringent measures against the violators found in the markets during their monitoring despite the high court clearly saying that actions should be against anybody selling illegal fireworks, particularly fireworks without QR codes.
“We are looking into the complaints seriously and will talk with the police authorities” said PCB member secretary Rajesh Kumar in a meeting held at PCB recently in response to Dutta’s complaints.