Green crackers? Most not bothered

Even as the sale of green firecrackers officially started across Delhi-NCR on Saturday as part of the regulated Diwali celebrations— sales have been going on since the Supreme Court allowed limited bursting of green firecrackers in a ruling on October 15—many buyers took home conventional fireworks across Delhi and one of the largest wholesale hubs in NCR.

- Gargi Shukla and Leena Dhankhar

There were crowds across Sadar Bazaar, Jama Masjid and Shakti Nagar, with firecracker sales beginning as early as 6am. Even as buyers seemed not to be bothered whether they were purchasing green firecrackers, sellers ran out of stock by the evening. However, in one of NCR's biggest wholesale hubs, at the Gadoli wholesale market in Gurugram, sale of conventional barium firecrackers went on unchecked.

During spot checks in Delhi, HT found that most boxes contained a QR code on the packet, which comprised the category of firecrackers, the name and email address of the manufacturer, the place of manufacturing, the CSIR-NEERI registered number, the PESO licence number, and customer care contact details.

However, the situation was different in Gurugram’s Gadoli.