Public hails Supreme Court cracker ban

Mumbai: Activists have welcomed the Supreme Court decision on Monday to continue till October 31 the ban on the sale of firecrackers in Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR) that was passed last November. While some activists believe the ban should be replicated in Mumbai as well, as crackers worsen the quality of air others say that creating awareness is working well and the people themselves are giving up noisy crackers, which is also good indication.

Since Diwali is on October 19, the Supreme Court ban on sale of crackers means there would be quieter and less polluted air in Delhi-NCR this festive season.    

“Of course we welcome the order banning sale of firecrackers and we think that the government on its own should do the same in Mumbai as it is highly populated and needs more care to make the quality of air better,” said Sumaira Abdulali of Awaaz Foundation.

She added, “We have been working on the subject of firecrackers for years and have compiled data on how they are adversely affecting the health of citizens of Mumbai. So instead of waiting for people to approach the court, the government on its own should move to ban firecrackers in the city.”

On the other hand, Dr Rakesh Kumar, director, National Environ-mental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), said, “I fully agree with what has been done in terms of intent of controlling noise and air pollution, but what happens when you suddenly ban something and then people start smuggling or illegally selling and buying them and even violating rules?”

He said, “For the last four to five years we have been tracking the sale of crackers, and we can see that people are bursting lesser crackers, which means awareness efforts are working well. And with little bit of strictness from the court there could be better results.”

Inside the firecracker industry

The firecracker industry in India is pegged to be around more than 8,000 crore.

 More than 85% of all crackers sold in the country is manufactured in Sivakasi area of Tamil Nadu.

During Diwali firecrackers worth more than 1,000 crore is sold only from Sivakasi

A large part of the industry is unorganised which provides livelihood to lakhs of workers employed directly to the manufacturing factories.

Lakhs of other people also engaged in related industries like packaging, printing, paper rolling and transportation etc.

Nearly 8000 unorganised units operate only in Sivakasi.