Amid ban on firecrackers, a survey conducted by community platform LocalCircles revealed that the percentage of households bursting firecrackers in Delhi-NCR on Diwali could be the highest in five years as two out of every five families are likely to indulge in the activity.
According to the survey, 42 per cent of households support “some form of ban” on lighting crackers during the festival while 53 per cent households said no restrictions should be imposed on cracker burning as it is not the root cause of the air pollution problems faced in recent winters.
“ 10 per cent of the respondents said they have already bought firecrackers from shops in Delhi, while 20 per cent said they have purchased firecrackers from other cities in the National Capital Region (NCR), indicating that the ban on the sale of such items is not as effective as it needs to be”, the survey found. The survey received more than 10,000 responses from the residents of all the districts in Delhi, Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurugram and Faridabad.
Sixty-nine per cent of the respondents were men, while 31 per cent were women. "Sixty-one per cent respondents said they will not be burning any crackers either because they are convinced that they cause pollution or because they are abiding by the ban.
The survey results, when compared over time, indicate that the percentage of families burning crackers this year is likely to be the highest in the five-year period since 2018," it said.
"As against 32 per cent such families in 2018, the percentage grew in 2019 to 35, but fell post the second wave of Covid in 2021 to 32 but again, as the festive spirit has risen this year and there is no ban on crackers in the NCR cities of Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurugram and Noida, 39 per cent Delhi-NCR families are planning to burn crackers," the survey report added.
The primary question LocalCircles asked households was if they are planning to burn firecrackers this Diwali. Another significant question in the survey was whether households support a ban on firecrackers during Diwali. LocalCircles’ survey received around 28,000 responses from Indian households in 371 districts nationwide.
The Delhi government recently announced that manufacturing, storing or selling firecrackers in the city will be punishable with a three-year jail term and a fine of up to Rs 5,000 under Section 9B of the Explosives Act.Bursting firecrackers in the city on Diwali could attract a jail term of up to six months and a fine of Rs 200, Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai said on Wednesday.