A day after Supreme Court banned the sale of firecrackers in the national capital region, Maharashtra environment minister Ramdas Kadam has demanded the similar ban in Maharashtra too.He said he will soon raise the matter with Mahrashtra chief minister, Devendra Fadnavis.
He said, “(I) will talk to Chief Minister Fadnavis and request (him) if we can also ban crackers in Maharashtra on lines of the Supreme Court order for Delhi.”
The Supreme Court on Monday had maintained that its last year’s order banning the sale of firecrackers in the National Capital Region of Delhi will stand. The order was keeping the alarming rise in air pollution post Diwali due to firecrackers adding poison in the environment in mind. The air in Delhi, Gurgaon and Noida becomes impossible to breathe post Diwali every year.
On Monday, a bench headed by Justice A K Sikri said the apex court’s 12 September order temporarily lifting the stay and permitting sale of firecrackers would be effective from 1 November.
Diwali is on 19 October and the order effectively means that no firecrackers will be available for purchase before the festival.
The order had angered BJP supporters, who mocked the Supreme Court while asking the top court to also target Muslim festivals. Prominent BJP supporters and known Islamophobes such as Chetan Bhagat had had tweeted asking Supreme Court whether it intended to pronounce similar order against Muslim festivals.
To which, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor had shut him up by reminding that slaughtering animals and mourning were parts of Baqr-Eid and Muharram festivals while firecrackers were the add-on to Diwali.