Kolkata: Concerned over three consecutive blasts in illegal fire- cracker outlets in three different places of the state killing 17 persons in the last seven days, the West Bengal government has decided to put a blanket ban on manufacturing at the state’s biggest fire-cracker hub, Champahati in South 24 Parganas district for two months.
A notice from Baruipur district police has been sent to the office of the local fire- crackers manufacturers’ association on Tuesday asking them to honour and follow the ban imposed for the next two months.
District police sources said the two months ban has been imposed to totally clean up the area on this count during the period.
“First we will conduct constant raids and search operations to identify, seize, and destroy illegal fire-crackers from this area. Secondly, we will identify the illegal manufacturing hubs in the area, where manufacturing of illegal fire-crackers has almost become a cottage industry with even domestic houses running such manufacturing and storing outlets in the backyards,” a senior district police official said.
After the cleaning- up exercise is completed, he added, then only those with valid licenses will be allowed to start their respective businesses.
“However, henceforth the police will be strictly monitoring the entire process of manufacturing and storing of fire- crackers here,” he added.
Meanwhile, a high-level meeting chaired by the state DGP Manoj Malviya was conducted at the state secretariat Nabanna on Tuesday afternoon, which was attended by all the districts’ Superintendents of Police.
In the meeting, some SPs, sources said, faced the ire of the DGP for intelligence failures about the illegal manufacturing and storing of fire-crackers in their respective districts.
“The DGP directed the district police Superintendents to activate their respective district intelligence units on this count. He also asked figures of the quantities of illegal fire-crackers seized from each district,” said a state government official aware of the proceedings of the meeting.
–IANS