Only green fireworks complying with the 90 decibel (dB)-noise limit rule will be allowed in West Bengal during Diwali, a senior police officer has said.
“There are two standing orders about fireworks in the state. One is that the sound from fireworks cannot exceed 90dB at 5 metres from the point of blast. The other states that only green fireworks are allowed during Diwali. The latest Calcutta High Court order allowing only green fireworks has not mentioned anything about the noise level. Hence, both orders stand and we will only allow green fireworks that will comply with the 90db rule,” Ashesh Biswas, joint commissioner of police (administration), said on Saturday.
Sources said Biswas had also conveyed the police’s stand on the issue to senior West Bengal Pollution Control Board (WBPCB) officials and fireworks manufacturers’ associations. According to the law, the police have the authority to control noise pollution.
Biswas’s comment clears the confusion created by the state pollution control board on Thursday, when officials said in the presence of the state environment minister that the agency would allow green firecrackers irrespective of the noise level if the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) and the Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organization (PESO) cleared them.
The WBPCB’s decision to not enforce the 90dB rule — which has been in force in the state since 1997 and repeatedly ratified by judicial orders, and is also part of the WBPCB’s directive — had drawn flak from green crusaders.
The board’s former chief law officer Biswajit Mukherjee had said the decision“amounts to contempt of court”.
“I thank the police for taking the right stand. If the WBPCB wants to rectify the damage, it should immediately come up with a notification repeating what the police have said,” Mukherjee said on Saturday.
On Thursday, environment minister Manas Bhuniya had announced that there was no approved green fireworks manufacturer in the state. However, the Alipore regional office of the state pollution control board had on September 29 given approval to a unit in Maheshtala.
“The ‘consent to operate’ clearance to the unit, given at the regional level, was not communicated to us earlier. As it has now come to the surface, we are looking into the decision to find out whether everything is in order while giving the clearance,” said a board official.
It has also come to light that various other units have tried to get clearance by pasting QR codes with wrong documents on their packets.
