HYDERABAD: IT looks like people are ignoring the Supreme Court issued guidelines restricting time for the bursting of firecrackers to two hours -- between 8 p.m, and 10 p.m. -- during Deepavali celebrations as sounds of bursting crackers were at several places in the city from the early hours of Tuesday.
The Apex court had issued the orders imposing time restrictions for four days, starting from Tuesday. Children to adults, violating the court order, were seen bursting crackers all day. Commissioner of Police Anjani Kumar, when contacted to comment on the issue, said: “Action will be initiated against all those who are violating the Supreme Court guidelines.” Asked if there were any cases registered, he said that there were “none to far.” However, the police are empowered to take up suo-motu cognisance of the matter and register FIRs in such cases.
Meanwhile, almost eight years after the State Pollution Control Board (PCB) has checked decibel levels of firecrackers, the department seems to have taken a conservative approach. This time, the authority has set up short-term monitoring units to check and record sound levels between October 31 to November 14. “The Maharashtra PCB could have checked the sound levels of particular crackers but we are not empowered to check particular crackers,” said a Telangana PCB official on condition of anonymity. “The petroleum and explosives safety organisation (PESO) sets the guidelines on which there has to be compliance,” he added.
A private research firm claimed that ‘one in two support cracker ban in India’. This comes in the SC restrictions on the sale of firecrackers. With a sample size of 2,580 respondents from metro cities including Hyderabad, Velocity MR claimed, “respondents have shown their concern towards increasing pollution with half of them saying banning crackers is good as it can lead to a pollution-free Deepavali.