As violations of the Supreme Court-imposed restrictions on the use and sale of firecrackers were reported across states during Diwali, questions cropped up, on November 8, 2018, over implementing the ban in a short period but legal experts said law enforcement agencies must be made accountable, for the breaches that can hurt the ambitious efforts to combat pollution. The experts also said the ban is not unimplementable.
In Delhi, a thick haze engulfed the national capital as it recorded its worst air quality of the year, on the morning after Diwali, as the pollution level entered the ‘severe-plus emergency’ category or ten times the permissible limit due to rampant bursting of toxic firecrackers, in gross violation of a Supreme Court order, authorities said.
Singh, who has been assisting the apex court as an amicus curiae in the air pollution matters, said even if the ‘positive’ order was not implemented in totality, it was a ‘huge step’. Dwivedi said authorities will be in a better position next time, to prevent bursting of crackers beyond the permissible time limit. His views were shared by Sinha and Dhavan, who said the apex court order ‘did succeed in many areas’ and that greater awareness among citizens, would lead to more compliance.
Environmentalist Mehta said the bursting of crackers in Delhi was not due to the failure of the apex court directions but was the ‘gross failure of the law implementing agencies’, as they were not serious in their approach.
Courtesy/By: Shubham Mathur
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10 Nov 2018
