Diwali celebrated over 2 nights, AQI touches 247

Owing to confusion over the exact date of celebrating Diwali, the festival celebrations were spread into two days - Monday and Tuesday evening.

Even as exchange of greetings continued for both days, most of the people celebrated the Festival of Lights on Monday night as it was also a holiday in the government and most private offices. But since several religious priests had declared that Diwali was on Tuesday, the gurdwaras and even the prestigious Devi Talab Mandir also had more footfall on the second day. "More devotees are turning up today than on Monday for lighting up candles and offering sweets for the auspicious occasion", noted a sewadar of Gurdwara Singh Sabha, Model Town.

Since the celebrations were held on both days, the crackers too were burst over two days. The president of the crackers association in Jalandhar, Vikas Bhandari, said crackers worth over Rs 30 crore had been sold and he expected the sales to cross Rs 40 crore by the evening. "While earlier, our market remained set up for eight days, this time we got just two days to sell crackers. Had we got a proper space in time with proper parking provision, we could have been in a position to register three times more sale", he rued.

The AQI of Jalandhar spiked to 247 on Tuesday against 196 on Monday morning. As per the Punjab Pollution Control Board, it was a switch from 'moderate' to 'poor' category. This morning as people had got out of their places to work, there was a visible smog and commuters faced slight visibility issues.

Sukriti, mother of a four-month infant, said, "It was not safe to take my daughter out of the house the whole day as the air was too bad. It seems that the confusion about the date regarding the Diwali celebration is leading to more crackers being burst. I expect the air to be even bad tomorrow. We may have to go in for some air purifier if this continues for more days. I am really scared, especially when I recall how bad it turned out to be last year."

An elderly man Suresh Talwar said, "There is so much stress laid on selling only green crackers. But clearly these are not green crackers that are being burst all around. There is so much smoke billowing from them. Government officials are not making any checks. Also when the Supreme Court has given just two hours time between 8 pm and 10 pm for bursting crackers, why is the local administration or the police not checking anyone?"

A good thing about Diwali this time was that there were neither any major fires reported, nor any grievous burn injuries in the handling of crackers.