The Telangana Rashtra Samithi government led by chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has landed in an embarrassment position following a high court judgement on Thursday banning sale and purchase of fire crackers on the occasion of Diwali.
Hitherto, the TRS government has been silent on the fire crackers issue because it is a sensitive matter concerned with the feelings of Hindus.
Though the National Green Tribunal has directed all the state governments to ban the crackers, there was no response from Telangana.
But with the high court on Thursday giving clear directions to the government to ban the crackers, the government is forced to take a decision. This led to strong protests from Hindu organisations like Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the BJP.
In a statement, VHP challenged KCR to implement the high court decision.
“Do you have guts to remove the stalls that are selling fire crackers? Will you implement the high court order or issue an ordinance allowing sale of fire crackers?” it asked.
It wondered why the courts and governments should impose restrictions only on Hindu festivals. It asked whether the KCR government will file criminal cases against those who fire crackers.
Meanwhile, Hyderabad fire crackers merchants’ association said they would lose business to the extent of Rs 200 crore, if the sale and purchase of crackers was banned.
The association asked as to why the government had given permissions for fire safety to the shops if it wanted to ban the crackers.
They demanded that KCR should come to the rescue and allow the sale of fire crackers for two days.
“Otherwise, we have no other option but to commit suicide,” the association leaders said.
In the morning, the high court bench directed that the state government take steps to ban sale and purchase of crackers immediately.
It asked the government to close down all the cracker shops which had already been selling crackers for the last few days and penalize those shops which violated the ban.
The high court advised that the government give wide publicity through electronic and print media on the ill-effects of bursting of crackers during this Covid-19 pandemic.