Delivered home or stashed away in stalls, crackers dodge ban

Ghaziabad/Noida: Some are taking orders on WhatsApp and delivering them to the doorstep. Some have them stashed among diyas and Diwali decor on sale at stalls, to be revealed only to “trusted” customers.

For those looking hard enough, getting firecrackers is not that tough in Noida and Ghaziabad, never mind the complete ban on their sale and use across Delhi-NCR. They are on offer from several traders in the industrial areas of Muradnagar and Loni in Ghaziabad and stores in places like Nithari and Nevada in Noida.

A man selling Diwali items from a stall at Sector 22 in Noida admitted he had crackers too, a disclosure he only makes to those who persist beyond his initial denials. "I have a few packets on the counter. But they are hidden behind colourful puja items in such a way that they are not easy to spot. Only if someone seems like a genuine customer, I agree to show them what crackers I have,” he said.

Most of the stock, he added, was old because Covid and the lockdowns had led to a pileup. Fresh crackers have been sourced from Bulandshahr, Loni and Aligarh. “The usual cracker market no longer exists. We also don’t order in bulk, like we did earlier from South India (Sivakasi). There are a few manufacturers in Loni who supply small quantities. Since crackers are not readily available in the market, customers are not very choosy about brands and quality,” said a trader at Shahdara in Ghaziabad.

The sales, while clandestine since no licences have been issued to sell crackers, have also been slow, registering marginal pickups this season during Karva Chauth and the day India played Pakistan in the T20 World Cup. Cracker traders have jacked up prices, charging 20-25% above the MRP.

Procurement through networks on instant messaging apps like WhatsApp has helped dodge the band to an extent, several traders TOI spoke to said on Tuesday. “There are dealers who are accepting orders on WhatsApp. If the order seems genuine, the retailers are asked to pay 25% of the amount as advance. The stock is carefully concealed and brought to NCR in trucks. It is either delivered at the doorstep of the customer or at a place of their choice,” a dealer said.

Where stalls are selling crackers, they are off mostly the main thoroughfare. For instance, those set up in Nevada, Nithari and Chauda in Noida have winding dirt roads leading to them. Similarly, stalls in Loni and Muradnagar are also in rural settings. However, some sold crackers openly on internal roads of some residential sectors in Noida as well as Atta market. There’s no telling whether they were green or not (banned either way here), but they had the whole range, from sparklers to spinners and roll caps to other noisy patakhas.

A trader said despite the crackdown over the years because of

air pollution

, there’s demand for crackers in NCR. “Crackers are allowed in other areas, but not in NCR. Ban or no ban, there will always be a section of people who will burst crackers. As a result, illegal crackers have found their way into the black market. Despite higher prices, people are buying them,” said a seller in Ghaziabad.

The impact of these sales has been conspicuous — over the past few days, the sound of a cracker going off every now and then has been common even as the

air quality

has plummeted. Through last week, both Noida and Ghaziabad recorded “very poor” AQI on most days. On Monday and Tuesday, Ghaziabad was the most polluted city in the country.

RK Singh, the Ghaziabad district magistrate, issued a warning against illegal sale of crackers. “On Monday, members of the firecracker association had urged us to allow the restricted sale of green crackers. But

green crackers

, too, cannot be allowed in Ghaziabad because the AQI is in the ‘very poor’ range,” he said.

Green crackers can be allowed only in areas where the air quality is moderate or below. Both Noida and Ghaziabad don’t fall in this category.