With Diwali around the corner, the Delhi government has urged the Customs department to prohibit the import of harmful crackers from abroad, and asked the Delhi police to prevent their sale.

In its letters to the Customs and the police, the Delhi Pollution Control Committee cited a 1992 notification that bans manufacture, possession, sale, use etc of harmful firecrackers that contain “sulphur or sulphurate in admixture with any chlorate.”. Delhi Environment Minister Imran Hussain, who reviewed the steps to control air and noise pollution, approved an action plan that includes restriction on licences for sale of fireworks.

Apart form launching a public awareness campaign, the government also decided to set up inspection teams of area SDMs and executive engineers to check the availability of imported fire crackers in the market.

Officers from the licensing unit will check godowns randomly for imported firecrackers, an official release said.

According to reports, pollution in Delhi had reached “alarming” levels pre-Diwali in November 2015 with PM10 particulates rising to 2,000 micrograms per cubic metre.

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