West Bengal Pollution Control Board received 84 noise-related complaints by 1 am, while Kolkata Police’s control room recorded a staggering 434 complaints
West Bengal Pollution Control Board received 84 noise-related complaints by 1 am, while Kolkata Police’s control room recorded a staggering 434 complaints, exposing the scale of violations that left the elderly, patients, children and animals on the receiving end of the acoustic assault. Police also received 11 complaints about loudspeakers. Cops rounded up 371 people for bursting illegal firecrackers, of whom 205 were placed under arrest. Another 387 people were arrested for disorderly conduct. The figures were the highest since 2019. Last year, only 183 people were booked for bursting illegal firecrackers. Monday evening was not any better, with the decibel rising steadily post 8 pm. At 9 pm, Jadavpur had touched 75.6 dB. Till 9 pm on Monday, 11 people were arrested for cracker violations while 67 were nabbed for disorderly conduct. On immersion days, five PCB teams and 151 cop teams are expected to patrol streets, with 22 police station areas identified as extremely problematic and another 12 as moderately problematic.
The scale of enforcement also reflected the intensity of violations. Police sources fear unused stocks of illegal crackers could fuel further violations during Chhath and Jagaddhatri Puja. The worst-affected spots — Ballygunge, Jadavpur, Dhakuria, Taltala, Posta and New Alipore — remained unchanged from the previous night.
Kolkata: Kolkata’s Kali Puja-Diwali celebrations descended into an unprecedented noise frenzy on Sunday night, with banned high-decibel firecrackers exploding across the city well beyond the permitted two-hour window, triggering record complaints to the police and pollution watchdog.