Reiterating that flying kites using maanja thread is strictly prohibited, City Police Commissioner A.K. Viswanathan on Thursday warned of stringent criminal action against users and producers of maanja thread.

This warning was issued after a few incidents of kite flying using maanja were reported recently. Talking to reporters on Thursday, Mr. Viswanathan said more than 80 persons were arrested and 95 cases were booked for the use of maanja thread in kite flying and causing accidents, and selling the prohibited items.

“We have been taking consistent action against the violators and will continue to take stringent action. If necessary, we will invoke the Goondas Act against the persons who are caught using maanja thread for flying kites,” said Mr.Viswanathan.

Flying of kites in Chennai city using a thread coated with adhesives and crushed glass, stone powder or metallic powder, commonly known as maanja thread, or threads of similar nature which are dangerous and can cause serious injuries to the general public, are being recklessly used, endangering the safety and health of general public.

Passing a prohibitory order recently on the use of maanja thread, the City Police Commissioner has said with the high density of population, crowded streets and heavy vehicular traffic, flying of kites in places like streets, roads, thoroughfares, parks, gardens, houses, buildings, rooftops, graveyards, playgrounds or any other places, with such threads poses a grave danger to the general public, people travelling in open vehicles and those riding on two-wheelers.

They cause a high risk to the public getting inflicted by fatal/severe bodily injuries, in the hands, limbs, necks and throats and the occurrence of such incidents being on the rise in Chennai Metropolitan City, creating fear and alarm in the minds of the innocent general public, is a cause of grave concern.

There are also increasing number of incidents of persons slipping and falling from terraces while flying kites, tripping of power lines on account of such threads getting entangled with live feeders, resulting in fatal electric shocks and accidents.

The Union Ministry of Environment and Forests has issued a circular that the use of maanja thread poses a deadly threat for human beings, animals and birds, when they get entangled with maanja thread and this necessitates steps for banning the sale and use of glass or metal-coated sharp maanja thread, or plastic or nylon thread, to safeguard the environment for human beings, animals and birds.

In the recent order, Mr. Viswanathan said, “There are reasonable and sufficient grounds for proceeding to pass orders to prohibit the use of maanja thread for the purpose of kite flying and for prohibiting the manufacturing, storing, importing, selling, offering for sale or dealing with such injurious and dangerous threads and the ingredient materials for such threads in the city.”