After violations over 3 nights, cops get 1st ‘official’ plaint
Times of India | 31 October 2024
Kolkata: Even as pre-Diwali noise violations continued unabated for the third day in a row on Wednesday, Kolkata Police received the first official complaint from Rajdanga in Kasba that witnessed rampant bursting of crackers. The complaint was filed around 11.30 pm on Tuesday.
There were reports of crackers being burst in Sarat Bose Road, Lake and Dhakuria, along with east Behala and East Jadavpur. Reports of illegal firecrackers being burst have also come from Shapoorji in New Town and Baguiati along VIP Road.
The continued bursting of crackers has heightened the anxiety of this Diwali-Kali Puja becoming one of the noisiest in years, even surpassing last year that was considered one of the worst in recent times.
With the state pollution control board raising the decibel bar from 90 dB to 125 dB, the restriction on loud and noisy crackers have been lifted. This has effectively given sellers and buyers a carte blanche on crackers so long as the packet claims it is green. However, neither the police nor the PCB has any means to check if the crackers are indeed green. And while decibel meters can give the noise level, they have been used sparingly in recent years.
Babla Roy, the chairman of Sara Bangla Atasbaji Unnayan Samity that represents fireworks manufacturers in the state, has written to the state chief secretary, alleging that numerous illegal manufactures were making and selling duplicate fireworks that are leading to pollution.
"Old and reputable brands from Sivakasi and Kolkata are being mass produced in Champahati, Nungi and Midnapore," Roy wrote to the CS on Tuesday, alleging that the blame for the violations would then be levelled on legal manufacturers.
Environmentalists said the city had been reporting noise from crackers that are above the permitted 125 dB mark from various city pockets since Monday. This is set to grow manifold on Thursday when Kali Puja and Diwali are celebrated.
"This year, I am hearing the crackers go off two days prior to Dhanteras. It all starts post 8 pm and on Wednesday, this continued till midnight. We have a hospital near our premises. I just keep wondering why this gets repeated year after year," said Pratik Sen, a resident of Golpark.
Till now, police have confiscated 3,935 kg of illegal firecrackers and 35 persons have been arrested in this regard. Cops admit that over 80% of the seized crackers had fake QR codes.
To tackle the problem, plainclothes policemen have been deployed in ‘problem localities' from where illegal cracker bursting has been reported in the past. It has also set up over 400 pickets and 43 nakas across the city.
The cops claim that their job has been made difficult trying to distinguish green crackers from the fake ones. "We need a better way to check genuine green crackers as many of my officers are finding it a very time-consuming exercise to use the NEERI app. At several points, the app is hanging," said a cop.