With the festival of lights approaching soon, governments across the North Indian states and union territories have geared up to curb the already depleting air quality.
In the past, major towns and cities in India have witnessed smog for weeks after the conclusion of Diwali festivities.
Keeping this in mind, the governments are set to regulate the use and sale of firecrackers again, which plays a contributing factor to this air quality deterioration. However, despite all attempts in the past few years, the governments are often left embarrassed.
The AAP governments in both Delhi and Punjab have announced stricter regulations for firecrackers.
The Punjab government will allow the use of only green crackers and that too for a short duration on Diwali, Gurpurab, Christmas and New Year, the state's Environment Minister Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer said on Friday (November 3). He said that only licensed traders would be allowed to sell permitted firecrackers and no e-commerce site or others shall accept online orders within Punjab.
“Only green crackers will be allowed to be burst from 8 pm to 10 pm on Diwali, from 4 am to 5 am and from 9 pm to 10 pm on Gurpurab, and from 11:55 pm to 12:30 am on both Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve,” Hayer said, adding, "Green crackers that do not use barium salt or compounds of antimony, lithium, mercury, arsenic, lead or strontium chromate will be allowed."
Cities in the National Capital Regions (NCR), which is infamous for hitting headlines for poor air quality, are witnessing several restrictions imposed by local administrations.
Police in Ghaziabad and Noida have decided to not grant licences to firecracker sellers. This includes green crackers as well. A Times Now report said that police will allow the sale and use of green crackers only if the Air Quality Index (AQI) falls below 200, a rare phenomena for this season.
Delhi has, meanwhile, announced a ban on all types of firecrackers till January 1, 2024. This year will mark the third consecutive year of such a ban in the national capital.
Factors depleting air quality are stubble burning in neighbouring states of Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana; vehicular and industrial pollution, construction activities among others.
Meanwhile, a survey was conducted by Local circles which said around 32% of families are planning to burst firecrackers in Delhi-NCR, while 43% cited concerns about pollution as the reason for not doing so. The survey received over 9,000 responses from residents of Delhi, Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurugram and Faridabad.
The Gurugram district administration has also issued a ban on the storage, sale and use of firecrackers in a bid to combat rising pollution levels. The ban is in effect from November 1 to January 31, 2024.
However, the West Bengal government has taken contrary measures than its Northern counterparts. The TMC-led state government has relaxed the maximum permissible limit of non-light emitting fireworks to 125 decibels from the existing 90 decibel. Notably, 125 decibel is the national noise limit as approved by the Supreme Court of India.
The sale and bursting of firecrackers, other than green firecrackers, remained banned in the state since October 2021. The time for bursting green firecrackers on Diwali has also been fixed between 8 pm to 10 pm and for Chhath puja remains between 6 am to 8 am. A similar set of rules applies for other festivies like Christmas and New Year, where people have been allowed to burst crackers for just 35 minutes from 11:55 pm to 12:30 am.
First Published: Oct 28, 2023 10:32 AM IST
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