In a U-turn to his government’s earlier decision to ban firecrackers, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal said that people would be allowed to burst crackers for two hours on Diwali—from 8 pm to 10 pm. On Christmas and New Year, people can burst firecrackers from 11:55 pm to 12:30 am.
Earlier this week, the Haryana government had declared possession and sale of imported firecrackers illegal and punishable. A few days later, it banned all firecrackers ahead of Diwali.
“We have noticed that coronavirus cases have been increasing since the time air pollution started rising. Haryana’s daily Covid case count had come down to 1,000. This has now increased to 2,011 cases today. So, we took a decision (banned sale and bursting of firecrackers) to safeguard people’s health. However, for those who want to burst crackers, we will allow for two hours,” the CM said.
The Chief Minister, who said crackers were also banned in view of National Green Tribunal’s directive, mentioned the relaxation after being questioned about economic losses to traders. He, however, did not offer any clarity on whether traders would be allowed to sell firecrackers in view of this relaxation.
While West Bengal, Delhi, Rajasthan, Odisha and Sikkim, have imposed a complete ban, Karnataka recently went back on its decision allowing sale of “green crackers”—considered to be less polluting.
WITH AGENCY INPUTS