The state environment department has asked the firecracker dealers to send the items which were marked as illegal outside Bengal within the first week of December.

“If the dealers fail to send the banned items of fireworks outside Bengal within the stipulated time period, then we hold the right to confiscate the items completely. At present the items have been kept in a godown. The decision has been taken as during the New Year there are high chances of such firecrackers being used,” said Biswajit Mukherjee, State Chief Environmental Law Officer.

Earlier a government notification had stated that the use and display of crackers and fireworks producing noise level of more than 90 decibels at a distance of five metre from the point of bursting are totally banned. Accordingly, chocolate bomb, chain crackers, loose crackers, kali patka, dhani patka, dodoma, seven shot, rocket bomb and other similar noise making fireworks have been prohibited in Bengal.

With the present notice, the Burrabazar Fireworks Dealers’ Association is concerned about the losses that they would incur.

According to the dealers there are three godowns located in Nilgunj in Barrackpore, Uluberai and Kachrapara. A total of almost 486 cases of 15 to 20 kg weight are stacked up there with the banned items. Each of the cases is worth Rs 5,000.

“We got the notice a few days ago. We have been asked to send all the banned items to South India, Shivakashi, where we get the crackers from. However we would incur heavy losses since we know once we take back the items they would create complains about the products. We hope that they adjust the amount next year when we take the firecrackers, but we are not sure if that would happen a year from now,” said Sanjay Kumar Dutta, secretary, Burobazar Fireworks Dealers’ Association.