Illegal fireworks, including the barium-based ones that have been banned by the Supreme Court, are being sold at the Bazi Bazar on the Maidan.
This newspaper joined a team of green activists that found during a random survey of stalls at the Bazi Bazar that rules related to the sale of firecrackers were being brazenly violated.
The survey covered six shops and 20 types of fireworks. Only one variety of fireworks, manufactured in Maheshtala, near Kolkata, had the valid QR code that the CSIR-NEERI (National Environmental Engineering Research Institute) Green QR app recognised.
All others, most of which were imported from Sivakasi in Tamil Nadu, were found to have “Invalid” QR codes on their packets when scanned by the CSIR-NEERI app. A few were found to have no QR code at all.
The Supreme Court has ruled that only NEERI-approved green fireworks can be manufactured, sold and lit in the country. Packets containing such fireworks must have a QR code that the CSIR-NEERI app should recognise.
In a separate ruling, the apex court has banned the use of barium in green fireworks.
“We checked 20 types of fireworks at six shops selected randomly at the Shahid Minar Bazi Bazar, organised by the Sara Bangla Atasbazi Unnoyon Samity, and found that most of them were illegal. The packets had fake QR codes that the CSIR-NEERI app failed to read. Several fireworks had barium, in violation of a Supreme Court order,” said Sudipta Bhattacharya, an environmentalist associated with a non-profit and a teacher at Rabindra Bharati University.
“A firework with 59 per cent barium nitrate had a QR code that the NEERI app could not read. But while scanning it with the Google scanner, a NEERI-signed certificate was generated. The certificate was obviously fake. Had it been genuine, the NEERI app would have recognised the code.”
Bhattacharya expressed the fear that situation would be the same at other Bazi Bazars in the state.
Another member of the survey team said the QR codes on some of the packets, when scanned by the Google scanner, yielded no certificate at all.
“Among the certificates generated (when the codes were scanned by the Google scanner), some had expiration dates that have long passed. One had the same date of issue and expiry,” the member said.
When contacted by The Telegraph, NEERI refused to comment on the alleged irregularities without knowing the details.
“This (sale of illegal firecrackers) is a violation of a Supreme Court order and a gross failure on the part of the administration.... I will raise the issue in the appropriate forum,” said Gopal Sankarnarayanan, a senior advocate fighting the case in the Supreme Court.
Santanu Datta, an organiser of the Maidan fireworks fair, admitted that there were “problems with QR codes”.
“The barium issue may be also there. We cannot check all the items in all shops. We depend on the pollution control board, NEERI and the police to guide us,” he said.
Rajesh Kumar, member secretary of the board, recently wrote to all police commissioners and district magistrates: “For ascertaining the veracity of the green firecrackers, the district administration and police authority are advised to examine verifiable QR code of CSIR-NEERI affixed on boxes and packets of firecrackers using ‘CSIR-NEERI Green QR Code app’….”
“We have not checked the QR codes,” a police officer said.
