Team Herald

MAPUSA: The temporary stalls/shops selling fireworks in Mapusa have failed to comply with the guidelines on safety, say the Mapusa Fire Emergency Services.

Even the Mapusa Municipal Council (MMC) failed to ensure that safety measures have been maintained in the municipal market as well as opposite the taxi-stand where the temporary firecrackers vendors are operating.

Two weeks prior to the Ganesh festival, the MMC convened a meeting of temporary firecrackers vendors wherein the municipality directed them to comply with fire safety requirement before they put up the stalls. They were told to obtain NOC from the fire station in addition to licence from MMC.

The fire department refused to issue NOC to the firecracker vendors as they failed to comply with the fire safety guidelines.

“We have not issued NOCs to any of the firework stall/shop owners. We received 25 applications and given guidelines to them as per the Explosives Act 2008. Eighteen-point guidelines had been given to the owners of temporary structures and 14 points to the shopkeepers who had applied for NOC. None of them could comply with the same and hence no NOC has been issued. All are selling their products illegally,” an official from the Mapusa Fire Department said.

MMC Chairperson Ryan Braganza said that all those selling fireworks in the market have been asked to comply with the safety measures.  “Those selling fireworks in the temporary structures as well as the shops have been asked to follow the guidelines. On the basis of that we have allowed them to function,” he said.

Councillor Franky Carvalho informed that the municipal council cannot give licence to the firework stall owners or shopkeepers unless the Fire Department gives them an NOC.

A firecracker stall was also operating at the Mapusa-Bastora junction close to the newly inaugurated Mapusa-Tar underpass and flyover. 

When inquired, Mapusa Fire Station in-charge Bosco Ferrao said that the stall did not have permission to sell fireworks near the bridge.

Bastora Sarpanch Savio Martins said that it was only a temporary arrangement of 10 days; nevertheless, he would look into the issue.