Control production of noisy crackers: HC

MUMBAI: The manufacturing of noisy fire crackers has come under the scanner of the Bombay high court. A division bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice S J Vajifdar on Thursday asked the centre and state government if they could control the source of such crackers.
The court was hearing a Public Interest Litigation filed by the NGO Society for Justice and its member Bhagvanji Raiyani, seeking the court's directives to lay down norms for manufacturing the noisy fire crackers.The petition sought that the chief controller of explosives must be directed to stipulate norms for making crackers by specifying the decibel intensity and chemical composition on every pack.
It says the police should confiscate and destroy the stock of fire crackers with a decibel level higher than what is permissible under the Noise Pollution Act, 2000. "The manufacturers and the stockiest be prosecuted for imprisonment and fine under the law, as the case may be," says the petition.
Additional government pleader, Bharat Mehta, told the court that the police is taking action under the law and have prosecuted many people. The court has now directed the state, the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board, Union of India, chief controller of explosives and the Central Pollution Control Board to file separate affidavits and indicate proposed action to curb noise pollution caused by crackers.