The National Green Tribunal (NGT), on Monday, banned the sale and use of firecrackers till November 30 in places with ‘poor’ air quality across the country in the interest of public health and environment.
The NGT said there will be a total ban against sale or use of all kinds of firecrackers in the NCR from midnight of November 9 -10 to the midnight of November 30 – December 1, 2020. The order will also apply to all cities/towns in the country where the average of ambient air quality during November (as per available data of last year) was recorded in the ‘poor’ and above category.
A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel clarified that the direction will apply to all cities and towns in the country where the average of ambient air quality during November (as per available data of last year) fell under the ‘poor’ and above categories.
“The cities/towns where air quality is ‘moderate’ or below, only green crackers be sold, and the timings for use and bursting of crackers be restricted to two hours during festivals like Diwali, Chhath, New Year/Christmas Eve etc., as may be specified by the state concerned. At other places, ban/restrictions are optional for the authorities but if there are more stringent measures under orders of the authorities, the same will prevail,” the bench said.
“This direction is on the pattern of the direction of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in (2019) 13 SCC 523 which we are applying to areas moderately polluted or below air quality due to aggravated effect during Covid-19, as already noted. If nothing is specified by the State, timing will be 8 to 10 pm on Diwali and Gurupurb, 6 am to 8 am on Chatt and 11.55 pm to 12.30 am during Christmas and New year eve (which have yet to come and do not fall in November but if ban continues) and not otherwise,” the tribunal said.
The NGT also directed all states and Union Territories to initiate special drives to contain air pollution from all sources in view of the potential of aggravation of COVID-19.
Chandigarh administration had on Friday imposed a ban on firecrackers. Read here:
Haryana’s chief minister (CM) Manohar Lal Khattar said people would be allowed to burst crackers for two hours on Diwali – from 8pm to 10pm and on Christmas and New Year, people can burst firecrackers from 11:55pm to 12:30am.
“We have noticed that coronavirus cases have been increasing since the time air pollution started rising. Haryana’s daily Covid case count had come down to 1,000. This has now increased to 2,011 cases today. So, we took a decision (banned sale and bursting of firecrackers) to safeguard people’s health. However, for those who want to burst crackers, we will allow for two hours,” the CM said.
The Punjab government had told the NGT that there is no need for a ban on use of fire crackers as no part of the state falls in the NCR.
It said Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Stations (CAAQMS) have been installed in the non-attainment cities of Amritsar, Ludhiana, Mandi Gobindgarh, Patiala, Jalandhar and Khanna and the Air Quality Index (AQI) remained in the range of good in August, satisfactory in September and moderate in October.
