Port Blair, Nov 12 2020
The District Administration, South Andaman has allowed the sale of Firecrackers at ITF Ground and at Bhatubasti Parking in Port Blair. Almost all stalls in ITF Ground have been occupied by the traders and at Bhatu Basti several temporary stalls have been erected. Fire Tenders are on standby at both the places and the arrangement by the District Administration is fantastic.
We are two days away from Diwali and the license for sale of crackers by the District Administration was reportedly given to the traders yesterday. Although the shops of the traders are full with firecrackers but the customers are sparse, when compared to the previous years.
COVID-19 pandemic have impacted the lives of all sections of the society. The general public in the last few months have faced a lot of hardships from job loss to economic crisis to health issues to travel restrictions, the world has changed and people are accepting it as the new normal.
Nicobar Times visited ITF Ground today to enquire about the sales from the traders. It was afternoon, generally a good time to visit the stalls because the crowd is less and generally the traders are free to have a word. The initial impression was quite good, because the arrangements were fantastic but it took just a minute for us to grasp that there are hardly any customers. The locals here have an image of the ITF Ground in the days before the Diwali and it is generally crowded, even during the afternoon hours people could be seen flocking the stalls and enquiring about the discounts and prices, but this year there were hardly any customers.
We went ahead and spoke to a trader who informed us that, they have received their license just yesterday and have hardly received any customers. He further informed that this year, their sales are all time low and they have really low hopes for good business, because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The pandemic has affected the lives of everyone and firecracker traders are not an exception. This year people are also more aware of the ill-effects of fire crackers, because of the media coverage on the adverse health effects that these polluting firecrackers can create coupled with the COVID-19 pandemic.
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