MYSURU: Nearly a week after chief minister BS Yediyurappa made a U-turn allowing the sale and use of green firecrackers during Deepavali, health and medical education minister K Sudhakar on Wednesday pleaded ignorance about such eco-friendly crackers.
“There is nothing like green firecrackers. I have very little knowledge about their availability and usage,” Sudhakar told reporters.
Sudhakar’s statement is being attributed to some right-wing organisations’ opposition to the curbs imposed on Hindu festivals. Some organisations had even objected when the government had decided to ban public celebration of Ganesh Chaturthi due to Covid-19, following which the decision was reversed.
It now seems Yediyurappa’s decision to allow people to burst only green crackers has not gone down well with some of his partymen.
When Yediyurappa announced the ban before retracting it, Sudhakar had defended the CM’s decision saying the proposal to ban firecrackers follows advice of the Covid-19 technical advisory committee. “The smoke generated by bursting crackers will have a negative impact on people’s health, especially those who have recovered from Covid-19. The committee highlighted this too,” he had said.
Party sources said there are concerns over the availability of green firecrackers since the announcement was made just a week before the festival.
According to Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, green crackers are those which emit 30-35% less emission, apart from having less harmful chemicals. They don’t contain banned chemicals such as lithium, arsenic, barium and lead, and emit 125 decibels of sound compared to 160 decibels emitted by conventional crackers.
In October 2018, the Supreme Court allowed bursting of low-emission crackers relaxing the complete ban issued in 2017. Such crackers were developed by scientists at CSIR-NEERI as per the court’s directions and they had even signed agreements with more than 200 companies to manufacture the crackers and make them available for sale. But sources said production of such crackers this time has taken a beating due to the pandemic.