The Supreme Court yesterday refused to order a blanket ban on firecrackers on Diwali. Yet, it expressed displeasure over the central government’s failure to carry out its earlier directive, to give wide publicity to the ill effects of the bursting of crackers, and the sound and air pollution it causes.

It has directed the central government to start the publicity campaign to educate people, and prohibited the bursting of firecrackers from 10 pm to 6 am.