Hyderabad: Telangana has banned the use of firecrackers with immediate effect before Deepavali following a High Court directive to the state government, joining a list of states that have taken a similar step citing the COVID-19 pandemic.
The festival is held on Saturday.
The Superior Court ordered the state (Thursday) to immediately ban the sale and use of fireworks by individuals and organizations and to immediately crack down and close stores that sell them, according to a Government Order (GO), with date of November 12.
The BJP opposition claimed that the TRS government failed to protect the sentiments of Hindus against the cookie ban by failing to effectively argue the case in court.
The GO said the court has issued instructions to appeal to people, both through print and electronic media, to refrain from exploding firecrackers, in order to avoid any further deterioration in air quality.
“The government, after careful consideration of the matter and taking into account the instructions of the Honorable Superior Court, hereby imposes a ban on the sale and use of firecrackers by individuals and organizations, effective immediately,” he said.
The chief of state police, DG Fire Services and all district collectors, police commissioners and SP should take immediate action to close stores selling fireworks across the state, he said.
On Thursday, a division bank made up of Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice B Vijaysen Reddy had ordered the state government to immediately ban the sale and use of fireworks during Deepavali in light of concerns over the COVID-19, noting that people’s lives are the most important.
The court said that although festivals may be important and have a social purpose, the lives of the people were nevertheless the most important. It was an inescapable duty of the state to ensure the protection and promotion of lives in a meaningful way, the court had said.
Meanwhile, BJP state chairman and deputy Bandi Sanjay Kumar alleged that the TRS government had failed to protect the feelings of Hindus in the face of the ban on firecrackers.
The High Court has ordered the imposition of the ban on firecrackers as the state government could not effectively argue the matter in court, it said in a statement on Friday.
“It has become fashionable to make Hindu festivals controversial every time,” Kumar said.
He asked where the owners of the firecracker shops would go when asked to close the shops that had previously been allowed by the government.
He demanded that the government come to the rescue of small businessmen who sell firecrackers.
In view of the COVID-19 situation, states such as Rajasthan and Odisha had banned the sale and use of firecrackers, while Delhi, plagued by threatening pollution, also cited the pandemic situation to say no to fireworks.
Two other southern states, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, have allowed the use of green crackers during Deepavali.
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