LUCKNOW (The Thursday Times) — Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has defended the bursting of firecrackers during Diwali and brushed aside concerns about the smog that followed, saying the pollution “would be mitigated as well”.
Speaking at a government event in Lucknow on Wednesday, where appointment letters were handed to newly recruited clerks, he said his government had decided not to impose any restrictions on the festival, and that he himself had been “in the middle of fireworks in Ayodhya”.
“Nobody says anything to those who polluted the entire system with their corrupt misdeeds. But if the public bursts crackers for one day, it creates pollution! If pollution occurred, it would be mitigated as well,” he said. “It is good that people celebrated Diwali with dhoom-dhadaka and burst crackers.”
Smog across the north
His remarks came as northern India struggled with smog after the festival. In Delhi, the 24-hour average air quality index on Diwali day, November 8, was 376, in the “very poor” band, the worst Diwali-day reading since 2021, according to the Central Pollution Control Board. It eased to 299 by Tuesday as winds picked up.
Uttar Pradesh was not spared. A day after Diwali, Anpara recorded an index of 355, Noida 332, Khurja 331, and Ghaziabad 324, all in the “very poor” band. Lucknow’s reading fell from 245 to 172 by Tuesday, and fog cut visibility to zero in Varanasi on Monday.
Monitors in Delhi had already maxed out as the smog hit many times the WHO limit, and police in the capital this week stopped a students’ march against toxic air. The opposition Aam Aadmi Party has accused Delhi’s government of “data fraud” over the official readings.
