Nagpur: The nuisance detection squad (NDS) of Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) on Thursday caught red-handed 250 persons while flying kites with the banned nylon manja on Makar Sankranti.
The city police too caught 19 people with the manja from different areas of the city.
The police and NDS had launched a joint action after death of a 23-year-old engineering graduate Pranay Thakre whose throat was slit due to the nylon manja on Tuesday.
The NDS led by commandant Veersen Tambe also seized 4,048 banned plastic kites and 107 nylon manja chakris after raiding 424 shops. The squad also collected Rs55,000 in fine from the offenders.
The NDS teams fanned across the city since 8am. The highest number of cases were found in Dharampeth and Mangalwari zones where the team caught 70 people using the nylon manja.
The NDS caught 30 persons each in Hanuman Nagar, Nehru Nagar and Lakadganj zones, 25 in Gandhibagh zone and 20 each in Laxmi Nagar and Ashi Nagar zones, 15 in Satranjipura and 10 in Dhantoli zones.
The Nagpur city police had recently issued a prohibitory order banning kite flying with nylon manja.
Police personnel from Dhantoli, Ambazari, Ganeshpeth, Pratap Nagar and Kalamna caught two kite flyers each.
Gittikhadan police and Nandanvan police caught four and three kite flyers each. Kapil Nagar and Tehsil Nagar police stations caught one person each.
As a precautionary measure, the Nagpur city traffic police kept all the flyovers in the city closed for the entire day to prevent any accident due to the manja.
In 2017, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) banned the production, storage and sale of nylon manja since the thread can leave deep cuts leading to death of humans or animals.