vijayawada the auction conducted by vijayawada municipal corporation vmc for temporary fireworks shops has received poor response in the city sources said traders and retailers prefer private grounds to vmc stalls due to the low rentthe vmc used to arrange around 150 fireworks stalls at pwd grounds every year after the government started ambedkar smriti vanam works there the vmc shifted the stalls to gymkhana grounds makineni stadium and punnami ghatthe vmc fixed 30000 for stalls at gymkhana grounds and 26000 for stalls at other places for three days only 19 stalls were arranged at gymkhana grounds and four stalls were booked at ajith singh nagar however no seller has shown interest in arranging stalls at punnami ghatmeanwhile traders have arranged stalls at private venues like satavahana college ghantasala music college and open grounds located on city outskirts venues suggested by the vmc are not viable they are charging almost 10000 per day for a stall which is very high we should get permission from other departments which will add to the burden prices of fireworks have increased and we have decided to arrange shops at private venues which are available at cheaper prices we are hoping to do good business this year he saidvmc estate officer ambedkar said that many traders prefer pwd grounds which is permanently closed he added that gymkhana grounds has huge demand but they allocated only a few stalls considering the safety issueson the other hand the skyrocketing prices of fire crackers has become a concern for buyers as well as sellers and the buyers are buying less crackers as the cost of branded fireworks has increased by 35