BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court on Friday directed the authorities of the state government, all local bodies and police to implement the orders issued by the government strictly to ensure sale and bursting of green firecrackers between 8 pm to 10 pm, in view of Covid-19 pandemic.
A division bench of Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice S Vishwajith Shetty passed the order during the hearing of PILs filed by AS Vishnu Bharath, a resident of the city and another to ban all kinds of crackers and implement regulations to prevent noise pollution.
This was after the state government submitted the modified order and realising its mistake by defining the meaning of ‘green crackers’, following the direction issued by the court on Thursday.
In the modified order, the state government clearly recorded that packing of green crackers has a logo of CSIR-NEERI and PESCO as well as QR coding system.
Referring to this, the bench said that the state has issued a clarification on green crackers and hence public aren't aware of what green crackers really are. Hence the state government should give wide publicity immediately in media about the same, the bench added.
The bench has also made it clear that all local bodies and the police department must ensure that the stalls set up in their respective areas should only sell green crackers and it is the duty of Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) and police to attend immediately the complaints receiving from public regarding noise pollution.
The bench said, in a bigger city like Bengaluru, the KSPCB should ensure that decibel meters are made available with police in densely populated areas to measure noise level and it is needless to add that it is the obligation of the state ensure scrupulous implementation order passed by NGT on November 9.
The bench has said that the counsels of the state, KSPCB and BBMP are directed inform the order of the court to all the authorities concerned without waiting till the order is signed by the court and upload in the website.