Published in Dwarka Express on 29.10.2022

‘Say No to crackers’…the jingle was going on for a long time, with no tangible respite!

Every social platform carried the adage but with little effect.  Air pollution and noise pollution besides, a large occurrence of fire accidents are being reported in media. Somewhere shops and stores were burnt. In some places, the tender hands of the tiny tots were wounded. Several hospitals reported high influx of burn injury cases. Pollution peaked up. Perhaps Delhi may boast of ‘drop’ in air pollution, as AQI index dips to ‘VERY POOR’ category from the last year’s ‘SEVERE’ one. Who knows the truth!

Not so long back, when someone filed the PIL in Supreme Court, things started stirring. The 2007 verdict by SC came heavy on the people as well as policy makers. In fact, Supreme court came out with a balanced verdict taking into consideration, some concerns such as employment loss of cracker making industry and religious sentiments. At the same time, it also did not ignore the status of child labour in fireworks factories

Precisely, cracker bursting slot was restricted between 8 and 10 PM. All Police stations were mandated to monitor the same strictly. Low polluting crackers & Green Crackers with permitted decibel limits and emission norms were allowed. Court also banned sale of firecrackers on e-commerce websites. Sale of crackers was restricted to licensed traders, and one can’t buy online too. In essence the law of the land must be enforced and steps were indeed initiated by the Government in Centre and States, in compliance of the SC decision.

However, going by the latest pollution data published by CPCB, it is clear that there seems to be no breather except for the timing restrictions (we still breath pollutants). Even timings also are also violated in many a place, as noise was heard beyond midnight. In India, one comfortably quotes others’ misdeeds to justify his own misdeeds. The eventual victim is the common good. Next time one should not say, ‘POLLUTION KILLS’ when he violates pollution norms. One should not say, ‘PLANT MORE TREES’ when he cuts trees. One should not say, ‘SAY NO TO PLASTICS’ when he cannot stop using the same. Who cares?