NEW DELHI: The AAP government will soon issue directions allowing the sale and purchase of only ‘green’ firecrackers in the national capital, Environment Minister Gopal Rai has said. In 2018, the Supreme Court had banned the use of polluting firecrackers and allowed the sale of ‘green’ firecrackers in a bid to control air pollution.“Guidelines are being prepared for the sale and purchase of only green firecrackers in Delhi. Soon, we will issue the directions to departments concerned,” Rai said.
The ‘green crackers’ are not as polluting as the conventional firecrackers and contain 30 per cent less particulate matters such as Sulphur Dioxide and Nitrogen Oxide.
The CSIR-National Environmental Engineering Research Institute was tasked with the job of developing ‘green crackers’. But only a few varieties were available in the market last year due to licensing requirements.
The minister also said the exercise for reconstitution of the Ridge Management Board has been initiated.
The RMB is a high-powered body formed on the directions of the Supreme Court in 1995 to protect the ridge — the green lungs of the national capital, spread across 7,784 hectares.
Its clearance is required before taking up any development activity in the ridge area.
The minister recently said the AAP government was taking the lead in the fight against air pollution in Delhi-NCR, but neighbouring states were still “not serious” about the issue despite it becoming “more dangerous” due to the Covid pandemic.
He said the Delhi government wants cooperation not confrontation with otherstates on the issue of air pollution.
Delhi air quality dips further to ‘poor’ category
The air quality index of New Delhi plummeted to 221 and stood in the poor category on Saturday, a day after improving a notch, with West Delhi recording the most polluted air, according to Central pollution Control Board (CPCB) data. As per CPCB, out of 35 pollution monitoring stations, the air quality index in 24 stations was in the poor category.
With PTI inputs