Festive mood has set in putting an end to the wait for buying fireworks. Good news for the people waiting to celebrate Diwali with crackers, fire cracker stalls will be inaugurated on Friday at PWD grounds, Gandhi Municipal High School-One
Town, Gymkhana Grounds, and Basavapunnaya Singhnagar Municipal Stadium in the city.
The stalls were to get inaugurated on November 5, but permission from the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation and other agencies got delayed to their pre-occupation with rescue and relief operations in the aftermath of Cyclone Nilam. The exhibition ends on November 14, according to District Cooperative Marketing society (DCMS) Business Manager Prasad Rao.
106 stalls
A total of 106 stalls will be started at the PWD Grounds. There were 182 applications from various private entrepreneurs to display their ware at the PWD grounds. Out of them 97 private businessmen were selected through draw of lots. Remaining nine stalls are semi-Government/cooperative entities. In those nine stalls, three are by District Co-operative Marketing Society and remaining six by Vijaya Krishna Super Bazaar.
District Cooperative Marketing Society stall numbers are one, two and three. Vijaya Krishna Super Bazaar stalls numbers are 21, 22, 23, 56, 57, and 58. About 20 stalls will be opened at Gandhi Municipal High School in One Town area.
The Cooperative stalls are expected to sell the crackers at 75 per cent discount on Maximum Retail Price (MRP) on fire works like last year. These stalls will sell only `Standard’ fire works. “Since these nine shops will be run by the Cooperative societies, we do not expect huge profits. Prices of the fire works will be hiked by 3 per cent compared to last year”, said District Cooperative Marketing Society Assistant Manager Ramesh Babu.
All the stalls owners were almost ready to start their sales, but they were waiting for the permission form the Municipal Commissioner and Fire Department.
Cyclone Nilam has destroyed crops in almost all districts in coastal regions, so we do not expect to sell large volumes of fire works in this region. Even private stall owners also aired similar opinion.
Six new verities of fancy cracker items will be sold apart from regular ones in the Cooperative stalls, he added.
