Green crackers coming this Diwali; SC asks Centre to approve composition

The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Centre to approve the chemical composition of green crackers by May 15 to pave the way for their manufacture to fight pollution. A bench headed by Justice S A Bobde was hearing a petition filed by Arjun Gopal seeking a direction to ban the sale of firecrackers across the country.

In the previous hearing on March 12, the court had observed vehicles were "greater pollutants" while everybody seemed to be running after firecrackers. The bench, also comprising Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and S Abdul Nazeer, had asked the Centre to give a comparative study on pollution caused by firecrackers and automobiles.

The court had also expressed concern over the rights of unemployed workers of firecracker factories. Gopal had told the court that there was no order from the court to stop the manufacture of crackers.

Ahead of Diwali, the court had on October 23, last year refused to impose a blanket ban on cracker bursting with certain conditions, which included the use of only lesser pollution-causing green crackers. The court had stated that people will only be allowed to burst bangers between 8 pm and 10 pm on Diwali.

(With inputs from agencies.)