Few adhere to ban on crackers in city areas

Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, November 15

It was business as usual for those celebrating the festival of Diwali as the ban on polluting crackers, imposed by the National Green Tribunal, the apex court and the police administration, went up in smoke and high-decibel chemical crackers continued to roar till well past midnight here.

In utter contempt of the prohibitory orders, people were seen bursting crackers on roads, streets, rooftops and even at public places without any fear of the enforcement agencies.

If residents from different parts of the city were to be believed, both the district authorities and the police top brass seemed to have completed with their task just with the promulgation of restriction on bursting chemical-laced highly polluting crackers as the ban orders were not really followed up and restrictions practically remained on paper only.

“After the imposition of the ban orders and allowing a two-hour window for bursting only green crackers, the police ought to have played a proactive role for the implementation of the restrictions on the use of crackers made from traditional chemical explosives or beyond the permissible time-limit which, unfortunately, was not done with the result that the revellers wreaked havoc on environment pollution,” said SS Ahuja, a resident of Bindraban Road in the Civil Lines area.

Another citizen Paras said apparently the lower rung (thana-level) police personnel were not motivated enough to swing into action on hearing the high-decibel chemical crackers and take action as per the law against the violators.

“Senior police officials did respond to a telephonic complaint about the bursting of crackers after the stipulated time, but staff at the police station concerned, though called back, seemed reluctant to take any action unless specific place – where crackers were being burst – was intimated to them. In other words, even they could hear the noise being caused by the crackers till around midnight but were unwilling to act against the violators.

People from different walks of life in the city were of the view that the police authorities made half-hearted, if any, attempts to implement the ban on fire crackers in letter and spirit.

“The police were the licensing authority for the grant of temporary explosive licences for the sale of crackers at a few designated places in the city and it was no big deal for them to closely monitor the storage and sale of crackers in the banned categories. The seizure of such illegal fire crackers and stringent action against the defaulting cracker sellers could easily have yielded the desired results and could have saved the city from worst kind of air quality,” said an environment activist.