New Delhi, Oct 23: The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused a blanket ban on the manufacture and sale of firecrackers but imposed some restrictions on the public about bursting them during festivals, especially Diwali, which comes after two weeks from now.
A group of activists had petitioned the top court for a complete ban on fireworks as it increases the pollution levels. A Bench of Justices A.K. Sikri and Ashok Bhushan ruled against the manufacture and use of high decibel crackers and suggested community bursting of firecrackers.
The restrictions have been put in to balance the popular interest of people to celebrate festivals with the public need for clean and noise-free environment.
The court said that bursting of crackers should be restricted between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. for festivals like Diwali. For Christmas and New Year, the window would be for an hour starting a quarter of an hour before midnight.
The local Station House Officer would be personally liable for any violation of the restrictions within their respective jurisdictions.
The court further suggested the production of “green crackers”, community cracker bursting in major cities and a freeze on the production of series crackers or laris as alternative measures to curb pollution during Diwali.
The court agreed with the Central government's suggestion that crackers should be burst in areas pre-designated by the State governments.
During the hearing, Tamil Nadu government — the State's Sivakasi district is a major hub of production of firecrackers — had also supported a restrained use of firecrackers but not a blanket ban.
The judgment seemed to largely agree with the Ministry of Environment's five-page affidavit, which had suggested ways to deal with the pollution problem and chalking out short-term measures to combat pollution during Diwali.
The Union government had suggested working together with institutions like the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, the National Environment Engineering Research Institute, the Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation (PESO), the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to deal with Diwali pollution.
It had suggested the setting up of Raw Material Characterisation Facilities to check the presence of high contents of unburned material, partially combusted material or poor quality of raw material in gun powder in firecrackers.
The Centre had proposed the use of “reduced emission firecrackers or improved firecrackers”. These are “low emission sound and light emitting functional crackers with PM reduction by 30-35% and signifcant reduction in nitrogen oxide and sulpher dioxide due to in-situ water generation as dust suppressant and low cost due usage of low cost oxidants”.
The government said the PESO could be approached to ensure that fireworks with permitted chemicals and decibel levels are used. The PESO could run tests for banned ones like lithium, arsenic, antimony, lead, mercury.
“CPCB and respective state pollution control boards shall carry out short-term monitoring in their cities for 14 days commencing from seven days prior to Diwali and ending seven days after Diwali for parameters namely Aluminium, Barium, Iron apart from regulatory parameters against short term ambient air quality proposed by CPCB with regard to bursting of firecrackers,” the affidavit said.
The court judgment came on a bunch of applications seeking a complete nationwide ban on the use, manufacture, licensing, sale, resale or distribution of firecrackers and sparklers of any kind in a bid to combat pollution on an emergency basis.
Cracker manufacturers had urged the court to set in motion the suggestions filed by the Centre in August, before the commencement of the Diwali season this year.
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