Ahmedabad, October 27: Despite the reopening of the economy amid the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses like firecracker factories in Ahmedabad continue to face financial difficulties even as the festival of Diwali approaches.

According to Bagban Yadim Kasambai, a firecracker factory owner, he had to lay off his staff due to reduced demand. Also Read | Delhi-NCR Air Pollution: AQI Deteriorates in National Capital With Rise of Pollutants, Air Quality at ‘Hazardous’ Levels in Lajpat Area of Moradabad; View Pics.

"This year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have not yet received any orders. Every year, we usually employ about 25-30 workers to meet demands but we have only hired 12 workers this year. We don't even have any work for them as there are no orders," the fifth-generation firecracker maker told ANI. Also Read | Facebook Cloud Gaming Service With New Games Launched on Android.

"We usually start production in June and continue till Diwali. This year too we started in June hoping that by now things would be a little better. However, it seems people don't want to buy firecrackers. We are planning to close production in the next four to five days," he added.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)