Members of citizen activist groups The Compassionate City and PACT (Public Health Action) have written to Home Minister G. Parameshwara urging him to take more steps to successfully implement the ban on non-green firecrackers ahead of Deepavali, the month of Karthika, Christmas, and New Year celebrations.
They have suggested that along with regular monitoring by station house officers (SHOs) of the Police Department and the Fire and Emergency Services, more diligence needs to be done while issuing licences to cracker manufacturers. They have also suggested that the Transport Department should track illegal inter-State transportation of non-green crackers.
The members of the groups have also advocated a crackdown on illegal cracker sales, police training and awareness across all stations, putting up green cracker awareness and safety norm posters at police stations and on Hoysala patrolling vehicles, awareness through phone helplines and social media, and training Hoysala and Cheetah police teams, among other things.
