90 per cent stay away from bursting crackers in Mysuru

Mysuru: In blessing in disguise this Deepavali, departments of ophthalmogy and plastic surgery at KR Hospital in Mysuru has not reported a single case related to eye injury or burns, unlike previous years. This positive side is directly related to the celebration of the festival of lights sans deafening noise of exploding firecrackers. The muted festival is due to the Covid-19 pandemic. A whopping 90 percent of people stayed away from bursting firecrackers in the city, according to Mysuru DCP Prakash Gowda.

Head of the department of ophthalmology at KR Hospital, Dr Satheesh K said, "During Deepavali we used to receive at least 20 major and minor cases related to eye injury. By now, we would have received at least 25 percent cases. Fortunately, till now we have not received any case," he said. Echoing Dr Sateesh's statement, plastic surgeon Dr Mohan G said, "We we have not received any cases so far."

Mr Prakash Gowda monitored all the 42 cracker shops in the city to ensure that only green crackers were sold as per the orders issued by the B S Yediyurappa governent. "At least 70 percent of the stock at the cracker shops was not green crackers. So we have permitted the sale of green crackers and convinced shopkeepers that we would help them return non certified crackers to the manufacturers and get the money back. We have given orders our officers to keep a strict vigil on those selling crackers and those bursting crackers. In fact, due to the pandemic, the bursting of crackers in the city has come down by 90 percent," he said.

Manikanth, a wholesale dealer at Hebbal industrial area, claimed 50 percent fall in cracker buyers on second day of the festival. He attributed this to confusion over green crackers. The government should have educated people about green crackers before passing orders, he said.