CHANDIGARH/KARNAL: All restrictions on firecrackers and measures announced to dodge another festive season shrouded in haze were set aside another year this Diwali. Likewise, prohibitory orders against field fires went up in smoke, forcing most of Haryana to inhale toxic air.Acting on an advisory from the central and state pollution control boards, the Haryana government had banned both conjoined (laris) and ordinary crackers and set a 10pm deadline for wrapping up the fireworks.Yet, the conjoined crackers were available easily for want of any quality-check system.Faridabad had the worst air-quality index (AQI) at 440. Three districts reported 400-plus AQI that signifies severely bad air, while nine districts reported very poor air with an AQI between 200 and 400. Five districts, including Panchkula, had poor AQI, while Ambala and Charkhi Dadri were the exceptions with moderately bad air. After reporting zero farm fires a day after the Supreme Courts orders for raids, the Haryana cops reported 37 field fires in Fatehabad and 25 in Jind on Sunday.On Monday, Fatehabad reported 44 cases, taking Haryanas cumulative total to 1,857, while the agriculture department claimed the situation to be much better than Punjabs. A senior official said: We have penalised the violators and booked them. Cops will stop them.Referring to the bursting of crackers, officials in the pollution control board claimed that they will start compiling the AQI reports on Tuesday to recommend further action. For action against the violators, they passed the buck to the local administration, saying: This is a mandate of the executing agency, which is the district administration. It has to inform us about the action plan for preventing the sale, storage, and bursting of hazardous crackers.According to the Karnal agriculture department, it has recovered over Rs 2 lakh fine from erring farmers in the district till November 10.We also published the following articles recently

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