Chandigarh to enforce ban on crackers strictly; review decision: Traders

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 1

The UT Administration will strictly implement the ban on the sale and bursting of firecrackers in the city.

Ahead of the festival season, the Administration had imposed a complete ban on the sale and use of crackers of any kind in the city to prevent the risk of the spread of Covid-19 due to polluted atmosphere created by bursting of crackers.

A senior UT official said the ban would not be diluted and it would be implemented strictly in the city. Any violation of the order would invite penal action under Section 51 to 60 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005, besides legal action under Section 188 of the IPC and other provisions as applicable.

After the Supreme Court set aside the order of the Calcutta High Court on a total ban on firecrackers in West Bengal, the Cracker Dealers Association, Chandigarh, today urged the UT Administration to issue a temporary cracker licence for Diwali and Gurpurb this year as per the guidelines of the Supreme Court and the National Green Tribunal (NGT).

In a letter to District Magistrate Mandip Singh Brar, association president Davinder Kumar Gupta and general secretary Chirag Aggarwal stated that members of the association were selling firecrackers in Chandigarh for the past over two decades, but the Administration had failed to provide any justice to them.

Despite specific instructions and guidelines from the NGT and the Supreme Court with regard to the sale of green crackers, the Administration had imposed a complete ban in Chandigarh.

They stated that the Supreme Court today set aside an order of the Calcutta High Court on a total ban on firecrackers in West Bengal and even the neighbouring states here had allowed the sale and bursting of crackers as per the orders of NGT and the apex court.

“Every member of the association earns his livelihood on the occasion of the Diwali festival and by imposing a complete ban, the Administration is depriving the members of their constitutional right to earn their livelihood,” they stated, adding that due to the complete ban, the members were facing a lot of hardship, mental agony and financial loss.

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