Centre to reply on plea seeking designated place for crackers

New Delhi: The National Green Tribunal today sought response from the government on a lawyer's plea seeking designated time and place for use of firecrackers during festivals like Diwali.

A bench headed by Justice U D Salvi issued notice to Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation and others while seeking their reply by October 12.

The plea moved by advocate and environment activist Piyush Singh had said there is severe impact of firecrackers on the environment and causes air and noise pollution.

Singh had contended in his plea that the chemicals released into the environment due to bursting of crackers caused negative effects on the health and "every individual especially children, pregnant women and old people are at an increased risk of suffering health complications due to it".

The petition had also referred to a Supreme Court judgement which said, "In no religious text book it is written that Diwali has to be celebrated by bursting crackers. Diwali is considered as a festival of lights, not of noise."

"Ensure that fireworks and firecrackers are customarily burst by earmarking a place and time wherein all the people can come together and witness or view a show of fireworks dispensing with the need of crackers being burst in the residential areas," the petition had said while seeking prohibition of manufacture, sale and use of firecrackers.

"The excessive, non-mindful and unsupervised use of firecrackers is adversely affecting the eco-system and thus there is substantial question relating to environment, wherein the community at large is affected by the environmental consequences, which needs to be decided by this Tribunal," the plea, filed through Piyush Singh and Aditya Parolia, had said.