Place: Ballygunge Circular Road, Hazra Road
Complaint: Continuous bursting of firecrackers, mainly in highrises
Time: After Saturday midnight
Noise: 53.2 decibel (far beyond the permissible limit)
Air Quality Index: 342 (very poor)
Post-10pm on Saturday, on Diwali eve, parts of Kolkata erupted with the sound of firecrackers burst incessantly.
The decibel onslaught continued till early on Sunday, pushing up air and noise pollution levels. The West Bengal Pollution Control Board did not receive a single complaint throughout Saturday.
The city witnessed a brazen violation of a Supreme Court order, which says fireworks — only the green variety, the others are banned — could be burst only for two hours on Diwali night, from 8pm to 10pm.
“The onus to control rests squarely on the regulators, particularly the police commissioner of the city and officers of local police stations as per the Supreme Court,” said Gopal Sakarnarayanan, an advocate fighting the noise case in the apex court.
Residents said complaints to the police yielded little action and calls to the state pollution control board (PCB) went unanswered.
“Most of the bursting of firecrackers happened on the roofs of highrises after 10pm. I first contacted the police station. As the bursting continued, I tried to call the PCB control room after midnight. No one answered the call. Clearly, the administration left us at the mercy of the noise violators,” said a resident of the Hazra Road area, whose family has a number of elderly persons.
“The pre-2000 days of noise mayhem are back.”
This newspaper called the PCB toll-free number at 1am on Sunday, but no one answered.
“I will look to it,” said PCB member secretary Rajesh Kumar, when told that the board could not be reached on Saturday night.
The PCB data, accessed by The Telegraph, shows high levels of air and noise pollution in the city, caused by rampant bursting of firecrackers.
The noise measuring station on the Ballygunge science college campus recorded 53.2 decibel of sound at 12.48am on Sunday, compared with the night-time limit of 45 decibel in residential areas.
The air quality index at the nearby Birla Industrial and Technology Museum was 342 (very poor) at 1.18am.
The rest of the city was found to be no better post-midnight on Diwali eve. Around 1am, Bagbazar recorded 68.3 decibel, Tollygunge 61.4, New Market 76.7 and Kasba 89.6 decibel, all above the permissible levels.
An increase of 10 decibel results in doubling of pressure on the ear drums.
“A lot of fireworks did burst on Saturday night. We could do little as the onus to control is on the police,” said a PCB official.
This newspaper contacted several police stations. “Its happening everywhere. We have sent all our officers, but it’s difficult to control the situationonce the fireworks are in the hands of the people,” said an officer of Ballygunge police station. “We have distributed leaflets to all highrises to spread awareness.”
