Mamata forms panel to identify land to build clusters of green firecrackers

Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday formed a committee led by the Chief Secretary for identifying land parcels across the state for developing clusters of green firecrackers. The committee has been asked to submit a report within two months.

The move assumes significance with 14 deaths in the last few days due to blasts in illegal cracker manufacturing units at Egra, East Midnapore and Budge Budge in South 24-Parganas.

“Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is dead against the manufacturing of illegal firecrackers. The committee, which will comprise officials from several government departments, will identify vested land situated at a fair distance from the human habitat where a cluster of green cracker manufacturing units can be set up,” state Urban Development and Municipal Affairs minister Firhad Hakim said.

The committee led by Chief Secretary H K Dwivedi has officials from Finance, Home, MSME, Fire, Environment, Panchayat and Municipal Affairs among others.

The livelihood of lakhs of people in the state is dependent on the firecracker industry and the state government is pushing those associated with the industry to manufacture only green firecrackers.

According to sources, Banerjee has asked the committee to identify land from the state’s existing land bank and other vested lands for setting up green cracker manufacturing clusters. The District Magistrates will also assist the committee in identifying such lands. “There are many poor cracker makers who do not have the space (land) needed to manufacture green crackers. So a cluster-based approach to provide these poor firecracker makers with a common space will ensure their livelihood and at the same time dissuade them from manufacturing illegal firecrackers,” a senior official of the Environment department said. State Environment minister Manas Bhunia in the presence of senior officials of his department recently held a meeting with senior officials of the state Fire and Emergency Services department along with Minister-in-Charge Sujit Bose intending to speed up the process for issuing production licenses and trade licenses to the manufacturers of green crackers across the state.

Several manufacturers across the state have already received necessary training from NEERI in the manufacture of green crackers. Green firecrackers do not emit sound more than 90 decibels which is the permissible limit for Bengal, as prescribed by the court. Banerjee has already instructed the state government to identify the hurdles in the manufacture of green crackers and accordingly take measures to remove them so that the state becomes self-reliant in this and stops imports from Sivakasi in Tamil Nadu.