Kolkata: The testing of samples of green firecrackers, to be sold ahead of Kali Puja-Diwali, is scheduled to be held at Tala Park on Oct 30. Police, fire brigade, state pollution control board (PCB) and National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) officials will be present during the exercise.Police have asked Bazi Bazaar organisers to hand over samples of green crackers by 11 am on Oct 29. “The organisers of Bazi Baazars have a meeting with police on Oct 28,” said Subhankar Manna, general secretary of Tala Park Bazi Bazaar. As Kali Puja-Diwali is on Nov 8, wholesalers dealing in firecrackers said they sent applications to police, requesting that Bazi Bazaar be held in four locations—Tala Park, Sahid Minar ground, Behala and Kalikapur— between Nov 2 and Nov 8. Police are yet to confirm the dates.Revellers will be allowed to light up only green fireworks—they let off less emission and cause less harm to the environment—and that too, for only two hours on Diwali. A 2021 order by the state PCB said that “in West Bengal, only green crackers can be sold and bursting of such crackers shall be allowed for two hours during Deepawali festival from 8 pm to 10 pm”.Eco-friendly firecracker packets come with a QR code that can be scanned to ascertain their legality. NEERI’s website says green crackers are “made with reduction in size of shell, elimination of ash usage, reduced usage of raw materials in the compositions” and that they use “additives as dust suppressants to reduce emissions with specific reference to particulate matter (PM*), SO2 and NO2”. Santanu Dutta, secretary of Burrabazar Fireworks Dealers Association, claimed over 1,000 different eco-friendly firecrackers were available in the market.An industry insider said despite the “pressure on them to increase the number of stalls in the four Bazi Bazaars”, the Chorbagan incident prompted them to leave it to police to make a final decision. Only traders with a valid licence are allowed to sell firecrackers in at a Bazi Bazaar.Green activists fear this Diwali could be noisier and more polluting. “Illegal crackers have reached people’s hands already. Even if raids begin now, it is already too late,” said Biswajit Mukherjee, former chief law officer of state PCB.
