Malda police seize huge amount of banned firecrackers

Kolkata: Malda police have seized a huge amount of banned firecrackers from the English Bazar area.

Police had information that a huge amount of banned firecrackers have been stored at the Chittaranjan bazaar and a team of police force raided the market in plain clothes and recovered the firecrackers from the godown. According to the district police, raids will be conducted in other parts as well in the next few days. No one has been arrested in this connection so far. The seized fire crackers are worth a few lakhs, police said. Following the directives from the West Bengal Pollution Control Board (WBPCB) to carry out the raids to seize the illegal fire crackers, every district police have started operations. WBPCB has issued directives to all the district administration regarding the selling of fire crackers.

According to a senior police officer in Malda, the businessmen dealing in the firecrackers business had been given prior notice not to stock illegal firecrackers. Police came to know that in spite of that some businessmen had stocked illegal fire crackers. The businessmen were instructed not to stock or sell banned fire crackers further or legal action will be taken against them. In previous incidents, Siliguri had recovered illegal firecrackers worth nearly Rs 40 lakh from a house in the Punjabi Para area of Siliguri and held the house owner for storing the firecrackers illegally a few days ago. Cooch Behar district police had also busted an unauthorised firecrackers godown from the district and seized 1,500 kg prohibited firecrackers around a week ago.