Heavy rain in Anantapur district has made it a Herculean task for the firecrackers retailers to sell the stock as the entire location allotted for the sale of crackers turned muddy. It rained heavily on Friday evening, but there was a respite on Saturday.
The overall number of retail stalls, which was 150 in 2018, has come down to 91 this year and on Saturday, just a day before Deepvali, there were hardly any buyers, and retailers looked anxious. While some traders said it was the general economic slowdown, which had hit the firecrackers sale business, others attributed it to overall awareness among the younger generation to celebrate a green Deepavali.
The Revenue Department issued 317 licences throughout the district against 362 applications, but only 258 of them started the sale on Saturday. Sub-Divisional Police Officers along with Station Fire Officer, Municipal Commissioners, Tehsildars and Revenue Divisional Officers finalised the eligible persons based on obtaining NOC from the Department of Fire, and getting a temporary GST Registration by paying a one-time fee of ₹15,000 for those selling in corporation area, ₹10,000 in municipal towns and ₹8,000 in villages.
They were intimated about their licence status on October 19 and permitted to sell from October 21 to October 30. Despite having a 10-day window period, only 50% of the traders set up their stalls by Saturday morning and the remaining were waiting for their supplies from wholesalers in Guntakal and expect to begin sale on Sunday morning.
Cases booked
Meanwhile, the Legal Metrology Department sleuths conducted raids on cracker shops and booked 14 cases for various violations in Anantapur, Guntakal and Dharmavaram.
