Delhi govt bans firecrackers from Nov 7-30: Kejriwal

New Delhi: The Delhi government has decided to impose a complete ban on the manufacture, sales, purchase and use of firecrackers from November 7 to 30, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced on Thursday, adding that the decision was made considering the increased risk to life posed by air pollution amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The call was taken during a meeting chaired by the Chief Minister to review Delhi's preparedness for the pandemic with the onset of the festive season. The ban will also cover green crackers, said a government official.

Delhi BJP president Adesh Gupta criticised the move saying it was a "temporary" step necessitated by the "failure" of the Kejriwal government to work on promises like strengthening public transport, buying electric buses and solving the problem of dust on roads.

At the meeting, the Delhi government also decided to augment the bed capacity in its hospitals and deploy mobile testing vans in markets and crowded areas across the city.

"The medical infrastructure will be ramped up with an increase in the oxygen and ICU beds in the Delhi government hospitals for COVID-19 patients," the Delhi government said in a statement.

Delhi has recorded a spike in COVID-19 cases in the past few days with the number of daily infections crossing the 6,000-mark for the third consecutive day on Thursday. The statement said the Delhi government has also decided to increase targeted testing at crowded places such as markets and added that mobile testing vans will be deployed in such areas. The testing can be availed free of cost by the people at these places, it said.

With regard to reserving beds in private hospitals, Kejriwal said the Delhi High Court had stayed the Delhi government's order to increase ICU beds in private hospitals by reserving them, as a result of which it had filed a Special Leave Petition in the Supreme Court asking for the stay to be vacated.

The high court on September 22 had stayed the Delhi government's September 13 decision, saying asking 33 big private hospitals to reserve 80 per cent of ICU beds for COVID-19 patients would violate the fundamental rights of those having other health conditions. In the statement issued on Thursday, the chief minister, during the meeting, said all steps should be taken to maintain a lower fatality rate in the national Capital.

At present, Delhi is in the 17th position in terms of the deaths per million population due to Coronavirus despite a decrease in the number of virus cases, far behind all metropolitan cities in the country.