India's Supreme Court has outlawed
the sale of firecrackers in the sprawling city, one of the world's most
polluted.
"This is a major
positive," said Gopal Sankaranarayanan, one of three lawyers who brought
the case. He was present at the court on Friday and confirmed the decision.
Millions of firecrackers are
exploded in Delhi each year to celebrate Hindu festivals, and especially
Diwali, which commemorates the victory of light over darkness.
This year, pollution readings in the
capital city spiked to new highs in the days after the festival. The
suffocating smog reduced visibility to just a few meters, and the Delhi
government closed schools for three days.
Sankaranarayanan said the court also
directed the Central Pollution Control Board -- a government agency -- to study
the effects of fireworks and report back within three months. It is possible
that the court would then implement a national ban on the manufacture of
firecrackers, he said
Firecrackers are just one source of
pollution in Delhi, which lacks an effective public transportation system. The
sprawling city has 9 million vehicles, and new cars are being registered at a
rate of 1,400 per day.
Cooking fuel, construction dust and
coal-fired power plants add particles and toxic gasses to the mix. When the
weather turns cold, the city's poor warm themselves around small wood or trash
fires.
The Supreme Court sits in Delhi and
Friday's ruling is not the first time it has taken action on pollution. In
2015, the court levied a new tax on commercial trucks entering the city -- a
measure that environmentalists viewed as a positive
. In a related issue, The Head Media
and Communications ,Environmental Rights Action, Mr Phillips Jakpor while
commenting on the vexing matter with The Nees Office Desk of Paedia Express
Multimedia in Lagos, Nigeria upon his arrival from New Delhi ,India recently where he had gone to
attend a global conference revealed that he had to wear a face mask because of
the massive pollution in the city ,regarded as the Asthma capital of the world.
He noted that all that came for the same
program like he did wanted to get out almost as they came around because the
effect of the pollution was choking .
According to him while he was in
India the scenario he saw was more of a
national emergency as children were barred by the state from going to scoool
His words:”There were several cases of
people who fell ill due to the medical complications arising from the severe
pollution as it was too much,I think the pollution is due to the heavy presence
of manufacturing concerns in New Delhi while places like
Calcutta,Mumbai,formally Bombay ,Ahmedabad,Hyderabad,Madras are more of
commercial zones”
He added that if the Indian
leadership did not do anything to address the pollutant saga ,then they should
prepare for a lot of messy legal fight in the future.
CNNMoney (London) First published
November 25, 2016: 11:46 AM ET ,WHILE ABDULMUMINI ADEKU OF PAEDIA
EXPRESS,LAGOS,NIGERIA ADDED AN INSIGHT
No comments:
Post a Comment