Police raid illegal cracker shops

BHUBANESWAR: Police here on Wednesday raided over 200 unlicensed cracker shops and seized a huge cache of fireworks. This was for the first time that police seized huge quantities of crackers sold illegally in the city.
While only 645 people were granted permission to sell crackers during Diwali, more than 200 unauthorized shops have come up under different police stations."Compared to the last year, the crack down was massive this year. We imposed fined on unauthorized cracker vendors and seized the explosives," twin cities commissioner of police R P Sharma said.
Police, however, did not come across any foreign-made crackers in the market. In a letter to all chief secretaries and DGPs, the ministry of home affairs had alerted about hundreds of containers of crackers being smuggled to India from China through various ports.
"The Chinese firework products include Potassium Chlorate, which is a dangerous chemical and can explode spontaneously when mixed with a combustible material," said another police officer.
"Chinese products are cheaper and technologically superior. We are not allowed to use Potassium Chloride, which adds colour and height to fireworks. But China uses it generously," said Sudhansu Jena, a trader at Jatni, considered as the biggest wholesale cracker market in the state.
Since police last year failed to curb noise pollution, all eyes are now on the raiding squads out to ensure a noise-free Diwali. Odisha State Pollution Control Board (OSPCB) authorities had urged police to crack the whip on cracker manufacturing units. "If police raid the manufacturers, it will create a sense of fear among the sellers," said an OSPCB officer.
Sources said there are around 30 authorized cracker-manufacturing centres in Jatni, Balipatna and Balianta areas, which fall under the commissionerate of police.
A study by the pollution control board during Diwali last year indicated that the noise level got seriously disturbed following explosion of earsplitting crackers. Against the standard limit of 55 decibel (dB) in residential areas, the noise level hovered over the 85 mark during the day and nearly 95 at night.
In the silence zone of Capital Hospital here, where the standard sound limit should be restricted to 50 decibel during day and 40 at night, the noise level increased to 70 and 68 respectively.