Permits for selling firecrackers will be issued after assessing pollution situation, say Ghaziabad officials

Ghaziabad: The Ghaziabad district administration on Saturday said it will issue temporary licenses for sale of fireworks only if pollution levels remain under control

Ghaziabad: The Ghaziabad district administration on Saturday said it will issue temporary licenses for sale of fireworks only if pollution levels remain under control and the Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board (UPPCB) gives its nod for the same ahead of the Diwali festival.

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District magistrate Ajay Shankar Pandey said that the administration has started receiving applications for issuance of licenses for sales of firecrackers ahead of Diwali.

“Any decision for issuing licenses will be reviewed keeping in mind the pollution levels in the city. Further, an assessment of the situation will also be made by the UPPCB and only if they give a nod will we allow licenses to be issued. If we allow licenses, there will be bursting of firecrackers well before Diwali and this will deteriorate the air quality further,” Pandey said.

On Saturday, the air quality index (AQI) for Ghaziabad stood under ‘very poor’ category with a reading of 363.

According to officials, they have received 85 applications for issuance of licenses from city areas and another 13 from other tehsils in the district so far.

They added that the state home department has also added certain conditions for issuance of the temporary licences.

The conditions stated that the licensee shall not possess or sell fireworks of foreign origin; they will sell ‘reduced emission’ and ‘green crackers;’ crackers having compounds such as Barium, Lithium, Lead, Arsenic, Mercury, etc., will not be sold and there will be no sales of items such as ‘;ari’ (firecrackers joined in a string).

WEEKLY OFF FOR MARKETS TO REMAIN

Taking further measures to keep a tab on heavy rush in markets, the administration said markets will not be allowed to open on all seven days. The officials said that they have decided that the weekly off day in markets will remain in place on their respective days.

“There has been a lot of demand from the different traders’ associations to allow for opening of markets on all seven days in wake of the festival season. I have disallowed this and one weekly off day will remain in place. The decision has been taken in the wake of the Covid-19 situation as a lot of mixing of people will take place in markets before the festival. So, traders have also been asked to strictly adhere to the Covid-19 protocols,” Pandey added.

“During these days, we will also send our inspection teams to different markets. If any shop owner is found violating protocols or social distancing norms are not followed at their establishment, the shop will be closed down for 24 hours,” he added further.

The officials said that one of their primary tasks during November is to tackle the Covid-19 situation with the sudden spike in the number of fresh cases in Delhi, besides tackling the ongoing air pollution scenario during the festival season.