Bazi Bazar to start at four venues in city from Monday
Kolkata: Due to the delay caused by Cyclone ‘Dana’, Bazi Bazar will start at four venues in Kolkata from Monday and continue till Friday.
Apart from the main one to be held at Sahid Minar Grounds, three other venues for this year’s Bazi Bazar will be Behala, Kalikapur near EM Bypass and Tala Park in North Kolkata.
“We would have loved to start the Bazi Bazar from Saturday but Cyclone ‘Dana’ played spoilsport and delayed the infrastructural work for setting up stalls. The police were against putting up tin sheds atop the shops for precautionary safety measures in the wake of cyclone warning,” said Babla Roy, chairman of Sara Bangla Atasbazi Byabsayee Samiti.
About 150 varieties of fire crackers will be sold at Bazi Bazar this year. Sources said, the green version of fire crackers like sparklers, rangmashal, tubri which causes maximum pollution will be available in the markets. Hence, pollution will be less.
The testing of the crackers was scheduled to be held at Tala Park on Wednesday following which the nod for selling was supposed to be given. However, it could not be held because of the hostile weather conditions. So, the environmentalists are apprehensive that illegal firecrackers will be available at the Bazi Bazar.
“It has been made very clear that only firecrackers approved by CSIR-NEERI (National Environmental Engineering Research Institute ) bearing QR codes will be sold at the Bazi Bazar.
The police will take action against traders selling firecrackers that are not approved by NEERI,” Roy added. A senior police officer of the Reserve Force (RF) which oversees the issue of fire crackers said that they will keep a hawk eye on the functioning of the Bazi Bazaars and will ensure that only green firecrackers approved by NEERI are dealt with. “We have held meetings with all stakeholders and have informed them of the rules and regulations for fire crackers. We will take action against any one found dealing with illegal crackers in the Bazi Bazar,” the officer added.
