Many pockets of Lake Town, Baguiati, Salt Lake and New Town saw violation of sound norms since Sunday afternoon.
Banned crackers started bursting in these areas much before the court mandated window of 8pm to 10pm and continued much beyond.
According to a Supreme Court order, firecrackers — only the green variety — could be lit only for two hours on Diwali, from 8pm.
Many residents of Baguiati and Lake Town said they could hardly keep their windows open because of incessant bursting of firecrackers.
“I have two pet dogs. They were extremely traumatised by the incessant bursting of firecrackers. Diwali revellers started bursting them from around 5pm. As the evening progressed, the intensity and the frequency only increased,” said Supriya Chakaborty, a resident of Baguiati.
A senior officer of the Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate said they had responded to at least a couple of complaints related to bursting of firecrackers in New Town and Rajarhat.
“When our teams reached the places where crackers were being burst, the residents showed the officers a copy of an order that said crackers that produce 125 decibel
sound at 4m from the source were allowed,” the officer said.
“All the boxes of crackers had the markings of green fireworks. Which means they conformed to the sound norm. But since they violated the law by bursting crackers before the court-mandated window, we issued them warnings. They stopped bursting crackers and promised to abide by the rule.”
According to another officer of the commissionerate, they had received more than a dozen noise complaints from New Town, Bangur Avenue, Rajarhat and Lake Town.
“We found many people bursting crackers off main roads, in lanes and bylanes. Some burst banned crackers till late at night,” the officer said.
The cops arrested around a dozen people till 7pm on Sunday from places in the northeastern parts of the city, including Salt Lake, Baguiati, Lake Town and Rajarhat, for bursting banned firecrackers.
Last year, around 42 people had been arrested on Diwali night in the Bidhannagar commissionerate area.
In 2021, around 75 people had been arrested on Diwali in the area.
The police officer said it was impossible to completely stop bursting of banned crackers so long they were available in the market.
