Mumbai: In the last three days, Mumbai Police have registered 53 cases on firecracker sellers and over 100 cases were registered on public violating the prescribed guidelines of bursting firecrackers. Many people had complained to the police about crackers being exploded till late night and causing nuisance.
Despite clear guidelines by the Supreme Court, allowing to burst crackers only between 8.00 pm to 10.00 pm, citizens in Mumbai brazenly flouted these orders. SC had also permitted sale and manufacture of only low emission, ‘green’ firecrackers, but these rules too were broken. Police did let off the accused with only a fine ranging from Rs 1,500 to Rs 3,500 for those who were booked for flouting SC rules. On the other hand, a firecracker vendor was fined Rs 5,000 for selling illegal firecrackers.
Meanwhile, the noise pollution caused due to crackers was lesser this Diwali, as compared to the last year’s recordings. This year, the maximum decibel level recorded was 114.1 dB, lower than the last year maximum of 117.8 dB. Awaaz Foundation, an NGO which records noise levels during festivals in Mumbai, stated there was far less noise pollution this year, since fewer crackers were bursted across city.
Manjunath Singe, Mumbai police spokesperson and Deputy Commissioner of Police (Operations) said, “We have asked all police stations to follow the Supreme Court’s guidelines on bursting firecrackers and to ensure action against those violating it.” A lot of residents took to Twitter and tagged the Mumbai Police to lodge complaints for the violation SC directives on bursting firecrackers.