The Apex Court has appointed a committee, which is to be headed by the chairperson of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), for conducting a research on the health impact of bursting firecrackers.
Concerned over the growing air pollution in Delhi NCR, the district magistrate of Gautam Budhnagar (GBN) plans to reach out to Resident Welfare Associations (RWA) in Noida and Greater Noida and request them to urge the residents to avoid firecrackers during Diwali. He also wants the RWAs to reiterate safety measures.
BN Singh, District Magistrate of GBN, told City Spidey that he has issued an advisory to all the RWAs of the city and the Federation of Noida RWAs (FONRWA), which is the mother body of all city RWAs. This decision follows the Supreme Court order (to the government body) in terms of controlling air and noise pollution in the Delhi-NCR region. The order specifically states that the health of people living in the Delhi-NCR region should be given priority over everything else. Thereby, it is the responsibility of the police and district administration of the twin cities to ensure that no firecrackers are burst in the silent zone, which is essentially a 100 metre zone in the vicinity of hospitals, schools, courts, health care centres, religious place and other social establishments.
The court order also states that the police should restrict the licenses that they grant to shops for selling firecrackers. Compared to last year only 50 per cent of shops should get licenses this year. The top court has appointed a committee, which is to be headed by the chairperson of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), for conducting a research on the health impact of bursting firecrackers.
FONRWA has also asked the city RWAs to conduct a meeting with residents and apprise them about the negative effects of firecrackers. The RWA members have also been directed to hold a pledge taking ceremony for pollution control.
“These meetings shall be organised in each and every sector and hopefully people shall understand the ramifications of bursting firecrackers,” said NP Singh, President of FONRWA.
