The cracker shop on fire at Sector IV in Bokaro on Tuesday night. Picture by Pankaj Singh

Some lessons are never learnt.

The burning example of Tuesday’s Diwali market fire in Faridabad, where 200 shops were gutted, notwithstanding, more than 100 makeshift kiosks in densely populated pockets of Dhanbad are selling firecrackers in blatant violation of the Explosives Rules 2008.

Although the district administration has designated nine open places, including zilla parishad, DAV School and employment exchange grounds in Dhanbad town, for sale of crackers, vendors are swamping populated places to rake in maximum profit.

Over three dozen shops are dotting Purana Bazaar, Hirapur and Bank More neighbourhoods of Dhanbad, which are home to 500,000 people. Similarly, in Kendua Bazaar area, where 100,000 live, more than 20 makeshift tents have come up on both flanks of NH-32.

According to the Explosives Rules, to sell 100kg or higher quantity of mixed crackers, a shop must procure a licence from the deputy commissioner’s office. Also, if the stocks touch 600kg, the same can only be sold from a pucca shop with a minimum floor area of 9sqm. Such a kiosk should be 15 metres away from any other shop and boast minimum six-metre-wide motorable road in front for easy access in case of a fire.

Temporary shops, on the other hand, should be made of non-inflammable material and kept secured to prevent unauthorised access.

Most roadside cracker stalls in Jharia and Katras are makeshift ones, which are often made of bamboo, wood and fabric and hence susceptible to fire. They do not have the mandatory licence either. Again, wide motorable roads in congested areas like Hirapur is like an oxymoron.

Waking up from its slumber a tad too late, the district administration on Wednesday formed a team — comprising Dhanbad circle officer Dinesh Kumar Ranjan, block development officer Jitendra Kumar, Jharia circle officer Sagri Baral and executive magistrate Pankaj Kumar among others — to conduct raids.

Dhanbad SDO Abhishek Srivatava said the team had been instructed to bust all firecracker shops that have come up in densely populated areas across the district. “Safety on Diwali is of top priority for us,” he added.

Bokaro mishap

A cracker shop in Sector IV, Bokaro steel city, caught fire late on Tuesday night, reducing goods worth more than Rs 2 lakh into ashes.

The incident prompted SDO S.N. Ram to flash wireless message to all the 32 police stations in the district to ensure that no shop was allowed to sell firecrackers in crowded places, especially in congested neighbourhoods of Chas.

Residents remain sceptical. “Action or no action, cracker vendors will continue to set up shops in congested Chas, market where there are 500 other shops. A high school, a college, two nursing homes, three temples where hundreds come to worship, workshops and eateries are also in close proximity. A disaster is waiting to happen,” said Shibu Datta, whose family has lived here for decades.