2 held for breaching fireworks timing in Ahmedabad

AHMEDABAD: Be sure to keep the 8 pm to 10 pm time limit in Ahmedabad when you go out to burst crackers this Diwali. In a first, city police have arrested two persons for bursting firecrackers on a road after the 10pm deadline. On Saturday, city police chief A K Singh, citing Supreme Court directives, issued a notification permitting bursting of firecrackers from 8pm-10pm from Monday onwards till November 25. And on Saturday midnight police arrested Baldev Patel, 33, a resident of Ranchodji chawl for setting off firecrackers near a vegetable market in Amraiwadi. Another person, Vishnu Zala, 39, resident Choksi Chawl in Amraiwadi, was arrested at about the same time for bursting firecrackers on a road near Azad Chowk.

The city police are serious about implementing the 8pm-10pm window notified by the police commissioner for bursting firecrackers. The city police chief has also banned online sales and purchase of fire crackers in the same notification. Most importantly, the police have also banned bursting cracker series owing to the prolonged noise pollution it causes once it begins to burn.


Ahmedabad police have issued a notification permitting bursting of firecrackers from 8pm-10pm from Monday onwards till November 25

There is decibel limit too

The notification also states that dealers can only sell crackers which have “permitted” decibel limits. Import of foreign-made crackers and Chinese lanterns have also been banned.Speaking about the two persons arrested, additional commissioner of police Sector-2, Ashok Yadav said, “Both were arrested under Sections 188 and 131 of CrPC for violating notification issued by the police commissioner and for indulging in an act which may have caused harm to public or public property.”

DCP Zone-5, Himkar Singh said that besides the two arrested for breaching the fireworks timing, 13 other cases have been registered for violation of various norms relates to sales of firecrackers.

“Most of these are about illegal sales of crackers, without license. The cases were registered in Odhav, Ramol, Amraiwadi and Khokhra area of the city. We have formed teams for checking and verifying whether vendors selling firecrackers have licences or not,” he said.