Guwahati: As the date of Diwali nears, the apex court on Tuesday clarified that the court’s order to ban the use of barium and banned chemicals in firecrackers is applicable not just to the National Capital Region (NCR) but to the entire country.
A bench of Justices A.S. Bopanna and M.M. Sundresh was hearing an application that sought directions to the Rajasthan government to comply with the top court’s orders banning the use of bannec hemicsa and regulating noise levels.
The bench said, “At this juncture, no specific order will be necessary for as much as this court, in the course of hearing the petitions, has passed several orders, where steps have been indicated to minimise and avoid air as well as noise pollution. Hence the said orders will bind every state in the country, including the state of Rajasthan. Therefore, we make it clear that the state of Rajasthan would also take note of this and take all steps to minimize air and noise pollution, not only during the festival season but even thereafter.”
Many regions across the NCR have been reeling under severe pollution since the last couple of years and things tend to get worse as the winter progresses and smog seems to take over the whole region.
The court further made it “clear that there is no total ban on the use of firecrackers” and that “only those firecrackers are banned, as directed… which are found to be injurious to health.”