The Delhi government announced a complete ban on the sale, storage, and bursting of firecrackers by analyzing the current situation of pollution in Delhi and controlling excess pollution emissions during Diwali.
Thus, on this matter, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had decided to ban the overall activities related to firecrackers to keep pollution under control, just like the previous year.
He had officially announced this political aspect by tweeting about it on the tweeter by his official account.
About the Ban
According to the ban imposed by the existing Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, activities such as selling of firecrackers, storage of firecrackers, and bursting of firecrackers are entirely restricted in Delhi as they hugely contribute to the emission of excess air pollution.
Moreover, the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) also provides their concerns about air pollution and general guidelines for implementing the ban on firecrackers ahead of the festive season to keep the air pollution under control.
The policies of the DPCC also include strict instructions for the Delhi police to take severe actions against the people who would be seen violating the ban.
The Delhi police also have the right to register FIRs against the ban violators to prevent breaking the ban.
The Delhi police also require to check the illegal transportation of firecrackers from the other neighbouring states efficiently.
To regulate and monitor the ban’s status during the festive seasons, the Delhi police, municipal corporation, and environment and revenue department would implement standard operating procedures.
These procedures would enable them to track whether the people are following the guidelines of the DPCC to ban any activities related to firecrackers and air pollution.
Effectiveness of the Ban
Though the ban on firecrackers during festive is a helpful measure, it is also a short-term measure that could not be considered an appropriate measure to control the state’s annual emission of air pollution.
The research conducted by the Jasjeev Gandhiok of Times of India represents that the ban imposed by the Delhi government in the last year could be stated as an effective measure to control the excess emission of air pollution in the city.
It also indicates the absence of a ban on firecrackers could create a worse condition of air pollution in the whole town.
Moreover, the other positive effect of the prohibition of firecrackers by the Delhi government was that it had influenced about 20 other states to implement a certain kind of ban on the bursting of firecrackers during the festive seasons.
Apart from this, certain people also shared their opinion on the prohibition of firecrackers initiated by the Delhi government as not an adequate step to curb and fight against Delhi’s pollution but merely a short-term measure to cut down the additional pollution in the city during the festive season due to bursting of crackers.
Many people in the state were not very pleased by the ban on the firecrackers as according to them there are many other constant sources which leads to excess air pollution daily such as industries, vehicles, and power plant, thus in comparison to bursting of firecrackers for few hours once a year seems less harmful to the environment than the other constant sources which produce poison particles in the air throughout the year.
The ban on firecrackers also negatively affects the livelihood of about 20,000 people who generally earn their income through selling firecrackers.
Most of the industries of India are also facing immense loss due to the pandemic, and further ban depicts their income source.
