Noida admin urges residents to use green crackers to reduce pollution

The Gautam Buddh Nagar administration in Uttar Pradesh, on the occasion of Diwali on Thursday appealed to the residents to comply with the Supreme Court's guidelines on pollution by using only green crackers during the festival. The Supreme Court imposed certain regulations on the sale of firecrackers in its October 2018 verdict. The verdict only allowed a sale of 'Green firecrackers' in the Delhi-NCR region. 

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'Only licensed vendors will be allowed to sell special green crackers'

According to officials, the sale of the environment-friendly green crackers will begin on Friday in Sector 62, near the Ramleela Ground. "Only licensed vendors will be allowed to sell special green crackers. Online sale of crackers is banned," the administration said in a statement. "The aim is to check air pollution and people are allowed to burn crackers between 8 pm and 10 pm and only in specified community areas. Burning of crackers is prohibited within 100-metre range of hospitals, courts and educational institutions," it further said. 

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'It's bad planning and implementation'

The station house officers will be held responsible for violations of the apex court guidelines in their respective areas, it added. While the ban is in place, the residents of the region remained clueless about where to buy green crackers from. A local resident of Sector 76, Ankit Saxena stated that "frankly, I have no clue where to buy them (green crackers) from till now. There should have been proper awareness about it. So for a long-term good initiative of containing pollution with green crackers, it's bad planning and implementation.”  Saxena further added, "also, the 8 pm to 10 pm window is problematic because that is the time for puja and meetings in the neighbourhood... All this could have been planned better.” Local traders expressed their regret about getting little time to sell crackers. "How many green crackers can we sell in just two days. Diwali is on Sunday. This has hit our business," a local vendor said.

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Javadekar urged people to only use green firecrackers 

Union Minister Prakash Javadekar on October 7 in a press conference urged people to use only green firecrackers during Diwali and noted that the government has taken a 'historic initiative' for their production to reduce pollution. The press conference was kept to discuss various issues pertaining to the environment. "I would say do not burn firecrackers. I hope that children, students will tell their parents to not bring firecrackers," Javadekar told a press conference here. He further said that if people wanted to use firecrackers as part of celebrations, they should use only green crackers instead of firecrackers.

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(WITH PTI INPUTS)