Bhopal: District administration has started online process for giving licence to retail cracker sellers ahead of Diwali. Onan-average 500 licences are issued for retail sale of crackers for a month ahead of Diwali. Earlier, the process was offline but now, licences will be given online with the applicant not requiring to making rounds of any office.
The number of vendors last year, when Diwali was celebrated under the shadow of Covid-19, appeared to be less and sale was also affected, but with the festive spirit returning among people of late as seen during Durga Utsav and Dussehra, sale of crackers is likely to pick up again. And, also the number of vendors seeking to renew their licences or seeking a fresh one.
Additional collector Dileep Yadav said that the licences are renewed for vendors every year and till the previous year, the process for the same was offline but this year, the district administration has started an online process. He said that applications are already being accepted on the portal and once desired scrutiny is done including the police record of the applicant, licences will be issued and the vendor getting would be able to generate a certificate online. On the guidelines for sale of crackers and fireworks on Diwali, he said that the guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court and the NGT for the purpose would be followed.
But, before the district administration issues guidelines, a communique from the home department based on the NGT guidelines on whether residents of a particular city would be allowed to indulge in fireworks during Diwali or not. The decision is taken based on the prevalent air quality of the city. Since, air quality in Bhopal was "moderate" ahead of Diwali last year, fireworks were allowed in the city. This year also, the situation is likely to be the same. The state home department issues guidelines for the districts mainly based on supreme court guidelines, Yadav said.
During Diwali last year, the Corona situation was bad. Onan-average, more than 200 cases were being detected in the district every day on samples in the range of 2,000 to 2,500, indicating a nearly10% infection rate. The situation is far better this year with 4 to 6 cases being detected daily on a sample size of 5,500 to 6,000. With the 100% population of the district having received at least the first dose of vaccine, people are far more confident and festive spirit is back among the people. In the changed situation, M P Pollution Control Board (MPPCB) may not issue an appeal to people to abstain from fireworks in the interest of Corona patients quarantined at home.
