
The Supreme Court ban on sale of crackers
in Delhi was not a decision made by the Apex court foe show of its strength but
it was a tough decision taken by socially responsible and involved judges for
the benefit of the residents of Delhi.
The Court has been petitioned by young children of Delhi to help save their lives and although it was unable to help the children, it made an effort to do so with this ban. Delhi’s air is un breathable. The situation is so grim that today in every Delhi market, there is one shop selling respiratory masks.
AAP too has made an attempt with the odd-even traffic rule to un pollute the air of the state. But the air quality cannot be improved by anyone measure. A long term measure requires a multi pronged approach with changes from various fronts.
But sadly, like most of the other measures, this attempt too failed miserably. Although there was no sale of crackers in Delhi, neighbouring state of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh allowed sales. But worse was the the message sent by the politicians to the masses.
Shivraj Singh Chahuan invited Delhites to celebrate the festival with crackers, honouring the traditions in MP. Tajinder Bagga, BJP spokesperson from Delhi distributed crackers to the the slums of Delhi. Of course he will not be available when children of Delhi will be gasping for breath, waiting for their turn at nubelizer. There were many such “leaders” and “opinion makers” who encouraged bursting of crackers in the name of tradition.
And thanks to such leadership Delhi had a noisy and fiery Diwali which will start the onslaught breathing disorders. Now Delhi will start blaming the farmers of Punjab and Haryana for continuing their tradition of stubble burning. Farmers in turn blame the ‘ Dilliwallas’ for their indiscriminate use of private vehicles, for their environment unfriendly industry practices for creating a hot furnace in Delhi. Farmers ask why does all the smog from the neighbouring states chooses to collect in Delhi?
This is the same rhetoric as the last year and the year before that. What needed to be done was that residents of the Capital take responsibility of their own contribution to their own misery. The court attempt to help them went waste due to apathy of the residents themselves egged on by the educated illiterate elite politicians of the country.