Smuggling of Banned Crackers Before Kali Puja and Diwali, Police on High Alert

Asansol. Banned firecrackers are being smuggled under the guise of green fireworks. Ahead of Kali Puja and Diwali, police are now taking the help of QR codes to stop this smuggling. Upon scanning, the names of 1,700 legal green crackers will appear on the screen. The QR code can greatly help police catch fake green crackers. Additionally, this same QR code is available at various locations in every firecracker market in the city. Even when coming to buy green crackers in the market, buyers can easily understand which crackers are legal. Meanwhile, round-the-clock police checking and surveillance are being conducted in the border areas of the city to catch illegal crackers. Since the sale of crackers is prohibited everywhere except designated firecracker markets, police are keeping a close eye on firecracker shops during Kali Puja. The police are also running special campaigns for this. Green crackers producing a maximum of 125 decibels of sound are permitted to be burst at a distance of four meters. Light-emitting green crackers can be burst at a maximum of 90 decibels at a distance of four meters. According to the police, various types of crackers make a lot of noise—those that burst on the ground and rise up to form flowers or various designs. After reviewing the list of green crackers available with 'NEERI', police officials noticed that many of them are 'sound and flower pot' crackers. Besides, there are also crackers where only 'sound' is mentioned. According to police, fake shells and noisy crackers from outside the city could be smuggled into the city in place of those legal green crackers. Police stated that surveillance has been initiated to prevent such smuggling.