Chandigarh Administration requested to allow sale, bursting of green crackers

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 22

With the festival season around the corner, the Chandigarh Cracker Dealers Association has requested the UT Administration to allow sale and bursting of green crackers in the city this year.

In a memorandum submitted to Deputy Commissioner Vinay Pratap Singh, the association requested for issuance of temporary licence for sale of green crackers on Diwali and Gurpurb this year.

Ahead of the festival season last year, the UT Administration had imposed a ban on the sale or use of crackers of any kind throughout the city. The decision was taken after extensive consultation with health and environment experts and other stakeholders. In 2020 also, the UT had imposed a ban on bursting and sale of firecrackers in view of the spread of Covid-19.

Members of the association stated that Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and other states had already allowed the sale and bursting of crackers as per the directions of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) and the Supreme Court.

They said green crackers had been developed by the National Environmental and Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), a subsidiary of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).

After carrying out tests by the CSIR-NEERI, licences had been issued to manufacture green crackers, they said. They said green crackers don’t contain aluminium, barium, potassium nitrate or carbon, making these eco-friendly. Barium nitrate was responsible for heavy smoke and emissions and green crackers contain lesser or no barium at all, they added. Green crackers not only reduce air pollution, but also have a sound level of 100-110 decibels in comparison to the traditional crackers that emitted about 160 decibels of sound.

They requested the DC not to impose a ban on bursting of green crackers this year and issue licence for the sale of such crackers on Diwali and Gurpurb this year.

Green crackers eco-friendly

Members of the Chandigarh Cracker Dealers Association said green crackers don’t contain aluminium, barium, potassium nitrate or carbon, making these eco-friendly. Barium nitrate was responsible for heavy smoke and emissions and green crackers contain lesser or no barium at all, they added. Green crackers not only reduce air pollution, but also have a sound level of 100-110 decibels in comparison to the traditional crackers that emitted about 160 decibels of sound.

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