New Delhi, Sep 30: Three children below two years of age on Tuesday approached the Supreme Court with a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking ban on firecrackers before the onset of the festive season. They urged the court to immediately intervene in view of Delhi’s rising pollution levels.
Arjun Gopal and Aarav Bhandari, aged six months each, along with 14-month-old Zoya Rao Bhasin, contended before the court that it was high time, as pollution affected the young the most, causing various diseases like lung cancer, bronchitis, asthma and irregular heartbeats. They said the job of cleaning up Delhi cannot be left to a slow-moving state machinery.
They urged the court to stay the grant of firework licences, claiming the rules showed “environmental and pollution concerns are furthest from the minds of government representatives”.
In their plea, the trio, via their advocate fathers, said they were being slowly choked by Delhi’s “toxic, deadly and unclean” air, which was also likely to affect generations of as-yet-unborn Indians.
Seeking immediate ban on fireworks, the petitioners said they consisted of not only carbon and sulphur for combustion but also harmful materials like arsenic, manganese, sodium oxalate, aluminium, iron-dust powder, potassium perchlorate, strontium nitrate and barium nitrate.
“Children are the worst affected, as their lungs have not yet fully developed,” it added.
The petitioners also raised the issue of constant onslaught of industrialisation, polluting trucks and burning of 500 million tons of crop residue in states around the National Capital.
“While Article 25 of the Constitution guarantees the right to profess, practise and propagate religion, and hence celebrate festivals with all fervour and enthusiasm, it restricts such celebration on grounds of public order, morality and health,” said the petition.
It also sought immediate introduction of the Bharat-V emission norms, a stop to the dumping of dust and other pollutants and setting up of independent expert bodies to review the State's work in curbing environmental degradation.
They also said none of the religious texts of any major religion practised in India advocates or calls for use of firecrackers in festival celebrations. Arjun and Aarav are sons of advocates Gopal Sankaranarayanan and Amit Bhandari, while Zoya is daughter Saurabh Bhasin.
“Over the last two years, Delhi has retained the unique distinction of being the most polluted city in the world. The levels of particulate matter are highest, and across the country, over 7 lakh deaths occur annually due to air-pollution-related diseases.
Studies show citizens have 30 per cent lower lung capacity than Europeans,” said the petition.
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