Noida: Admin appeals for green Diwali

The Gautam Buddh Nagar administration on Thursday appealed to the residents to comply with the Supreme Court's guidelines on pollution by using only green crackers this Diwali.

The sale of green crackers will begin on Friday in Sector 62, near the Ramleela Ground, according to officials.

"Only licensed vendors will be allowed to sell the special green crackers. Online sale of crackers is banned," the administration said in a statement.

"The aim is to check air pollution and people are allowed to burn crackers between 8 pm and 10 pm and only in specified community areas. Burning of crackers is prohibited within 100-metre range of hospitals, courts and educational institutions," it said.

The station house officers will be held responsible for violations of the apex court guidelines in their respective areas, it added.

Meanwhile, residents remained clueless about places to buy green crackers from.

"Frankly, I have no clue where to buy them (green crackers) from till now. There should have been proper awareness about it. So for a long-term good initiative of containing pollution with green crackers, it's bad planning and implementation," said Ankur Saxena, a resident of Sector 76.

"Also, the 8 pm to 10 pm window is problematic because that is the time for puja and meetings in the neighbourhood... All this could have been planned better," he added.

Local traders lamented about getting little time to sell crackers.

"How many green crackers can we sell in just two days. Diwali is on Sunday. This has hit our business," a local vendor said.