New delhi: While multiple authorities in the National Capital Region had banned the use of firecrackers till November 30, the city came together and defied the ban. What made it easy for them was the makeshift firecracker stores being run from grocery stores in Delhi and adjoining regions.
Several residents in the capital region reported hearing firecrackers being burst in their neighbourhoods from Friday onwards. One Noida Sector-21 resident said he was "unsure of where these people were getting their patakhas from". On making further inquiries, some college students living in his colony told him that a grocery shop nearby has been selling them.
In South Delhi, most neighbourhood grocery stores were selling firecrackers starting a week before Diwali. After the ban was imposed, they continued and said no one came after them. However, on Diwali night the shopkeepers were hiding their stock while selling.
In Noida, one grocery store owner said, "I was selling them (crackers) the day of Diwali and Chhoti Diwali (Saturday and Friday) because there was a high demand for them and the sales made up a little bit for the slump I experienced post-lockdown. But then, one customer told me that if I get caught selling them I will have to pay a huge fine, so I removed them from my shop as soon as
I could."
On being asked how he was able to procure said firecrackers, he said "they were easily available. I know some people who were selling them for the past two-three days and I bought it from them at a cheap rate. Here also, people were ready to buy in large numbers so it was profitable for me. I was not aware that it is illegal to sell them."
In areas like East of Kailash, CR Park and other areas of South and South-East Delhi, most neighbourhood stores had stocked firecrackers — some who had procured it with licences, some without. Most said they had not been checked by police or the authorities. "We never tried to hide it. They just never checked our shops," one shop owner said in South-East Delhi's Garhi village.
There were also some roadside stores selling cigarettes and tobacco that had stocked certain varieties of firecrackers.