The National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Thursday reserved its order on a plea seeking remedial action against pollution caused due to firecrackers.
A Bench headed by NGT chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel is expected to pass orders on November 9.
On Wednesday, the tribunal had said, “With respect to non-attainment cities, where air quality as per record maintained by the Central Pollution Control Board [CPCB] is beyond norms, which are 122 in number, the tribunal may have to consider direction to prohibit use of firecrackers during the period air quality is beyond a threshold to protect the health of vulnerable groups.”
Earlier on November 2, the green panel had issued notice to the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) and four State governments, including Delhi and sought responses on whether to ban the use of firecrackers for the period between November 7 and 30 in the interest of public health and environment.
The directions came when the tribunal was hearing a plea which stated that pollution due to firecrackers had the potential to aggravate the severity of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
