Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Ban on firecrackers' that was published in Newsband

Ban on firecrackers

The Supreme Court has temporarily banned the sale of firecrackers in Delhi. The idea is to test whether it cuts the deadly pollution levels during and after Deepavali. This has delivered a big blow to the industry and incurred the displeasure of many.

But will this court order be properly implemented? Take the 2015 ban on crop-residue burning in Punjab and Haryana for example. Two years later, farmers continue to violate it.

The Supreme Court on Monday suspended the sale of firecrackers in Delhi and NCR till November 1, 2017 in a bid to test whether a Deepavali without firecrackers this year will have a “positive effect” on the health of citizens and a steadily deteriorating air quality. There is virtually a consensus in society that crackers should not be burnt during Deepavali, which can be celebrated with equal fervour by various other means as well. Various efforts are being made by the government, media and civil society to create awareness of the harms of bursting firecrackers, especially on children. It said the adverse effects of burning of crackers during Deepavali have been witnessed year after year. The air quality deteriorates abysmally and the city chokes. It leads to closing the schools and the authorities are compelled to take various measures on emergent basis, when faced with a “health emergency”.

Another thing is that Sulphur on combustion produces sulphur-dioxide and the same is extremely harmful to health. The CPCB has stated that between 9 p.m. to midnight on Deepavali day, the levels of sulphur-dioxide content in the air is dangerously high. Moreover, all the authorities were unanimous in their view that crackers should only be burst in designated places.

This order should have come some months back so that shop owners would not have invested their money in buying crackers. If the Government is planning to compensate those shop owners, then the ban is appreciated.

Such a ban should be imposed all over India since firecrackers are bad for our environment. Cigarettes, Vehicular pollution, water pollution, honking, littering (religious and otherwise) are bad for the environment too and they happen every single day of our lives. Government should do something drastic about these too.

Government should impose a complete ban on the sale and purchase of fire crackers in all the cities of India and if this is not possible they should go for the plan B which is to collect about 50% tax of the total sale or purchase from any individual who does so.

After all, it is not ban on Diwali. It is ban on firecrackers which are hazardous to human being. The firecrackers usage for Diwali is not very old but new fashion hardly century old. You can celebrate Diwali in much better way by avoiding firecrackers.