Sitting on powder keg, Kurali civic body sans fire station

The multi-crore firecracker market in Kurali banks on borrowed fire tenders as the Kurali Municipal Council does not have a fire engine of its own. Every year, fire tenders from Kharar and Mohali are borrowed by the Kurali municipal council as the town sits on a keg of gunpowder from Dussehra to Diwali celebrations.

“There is no fire station in Kurali so there is no fire tender. Same goes for Nayagaon,” a fire official summed up the situation.

Once the biggest firecracker market in Asia and an affluent industrial area, Kurali civic body’s recklessness is sensational from the present situation. The jewellers and firecracker stall associations have been demanding a fire station in the town for past many years, but there has been no development in this connection.

Despite crores changing hands during the Diwali season here, officials of the municipal council do not have a satisfactory reply for the lack of its own fire safety arrangements in Kurali.

“A proposal was sent to set up a fire station here a few years ago, but we are yet to get a reply in this connection,” said an MC official.

As usual, this year too hundreds of unauthorised stalls have come up on the bypass road despite issuing of 21 licences by the administration for selling firecrackers in Kharar, Kurali and Nayagaon.

In Mohali, the police in a late night operation evicted unauthorised firecracker vendors, who had set up around 25 stalls at the Phase-7 market. Authorised vendors with temporary licence claimed that they were not allowed to set up their stalls by encroachers. Avtar Singh said, “We were able to set up our stalls here after paying around Rs 50,000 fee with much difficulty. Many traders, who have one licence, have set up three to four stalls here. In some cases, the licensee is not even present at stall.”

A stall owner on the condition of anonymity said, “A gang of four to five people hijacked the entire licensing process. One person files 100 to 150 applications on the name of his near and dear ones. After getting licence in a draw of lots, he further sells it for Rs 1.5 lakh. If you check applications, you will find in some cases photo and required documents have not been submitted. One woman licensee is presently in Canada, but she has managed to get licence.”

Another stall owner complained that the administration had not provided any toilet facility for visitors and stall owners. “Till Tuesday evening, no fire tender was deployed at the spot,” he said.

In Zirakpur, residents’ welfare associations complained that businessmen were selling firecrackers from flats. One can see people coming out societies with handbags full of firecrackers.

Firecrackers on sale in flats

In Mohali, the police in a late night operation evicted unauthorised firecracker vendors, who had set up around 25 stalls at the Phase-7 market. Authorised vendors with temporary licence claimed that they were not allowed to set up their stalls by encroachers. In Zirakpur, firecrackers are on sale in flats. One can see people coming out of societies with handbags full of firecrackers.