SDM proposes, DSP disposes

Last evening, Kharar SDM Rajeev Kumar Gupta had sealed the premises of seven firecracker dealers at Kurali for operating without a valid licence from the Central Explosives Department.

The SDM had asked Kharar DSP Raj Balwinder Singh Marar, who accompanied him during the visit to one of the leading bulk markets for firecrackers in Punjab, to initiate criminal proceedings as per law against the illegal dealers who were found posing risk to public life and property.

The DSP was, however, 8216;kind8217; enough to allow the illegal dealers to restart their operations today after they applied for the licences through him.

8220;I forwarded their licence applications to the SDM, who further sent them to the District Magistrate for formal sanction,8221; the DSP told Newsline, adding that written undertaking was procured from the dealers to ensure adequate fire-fighting arrangements to avert any possible untoward incident.

The DSP claimed that all the dealers have made proper arrangements of storing water and sand near the firecracker stocks. On why no action, as recommended by the SDM, was taken, Marar reasoned, 8220;They all were poor people and had invested heavily to earn some profit during Diwali. I have allowed them to continue on humanitarian grounds.8221;

The SDM, on his part, said, 8220;I have done my job and rest was to be done by the police whatever they deemed fit.8221;

A total of 22 sites were, meanwhile, earmarked today for the sale, storage and exhibition of firecrackers or explosive materials used during Diwali in Mohali district. Mohali will have 11 sites, Nayagaon 3, Kharar and Kurali 2 each while Zirakpur, Dera Bassi, Lalru and Sohana will have one site each.

District Magistrate Rahul Bhandari had issued prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC to regulate and restrict the storage, sale and purchase of fireworks.

The DM asked the Sub-Divisional Magistrates SDMs in the district to ensure that there was no retail sale of firecrackers outside the designated places. The SDMs were asked to grant licences to the shopkeepers for the sale of fireworks under the provisions of Explosives Act, 1984, and other relevant Acts and Rules.

The DM also ordered that the use of fireworks and firecrackers will not be permitted between 10 pm and 6 am while completely prohibiting them in silence zones near hospitals and educational institutions.