Residents of highrises wary as Diwali approaches

KOLKATA: Residents of high-rises around Lake are residing in fear – ever since the Laxmi Puja immersions there has been relentless bursting of sound crackers. All calls to local police station have fallen on deaf ears, they complain. They are not alone. Residents of Salt Lake, Tollygunge, and a section of Ballygunge, Behala, Santoshpur and Sarsuna too have had a similar experience in the past week.Activists claim that at least 14 police station areas in the south, southeast and added areas are the worst affected. Reports from Lalbazar also accept that “more ground action” will be required to make this Diwali sound free.
“We live on the ninth floor and one of Kolkata’s biggest hospitals is located next door. Each evening, we are being forced to move out by the noise pollution around us. Both I and my husband are senior citizens and it is difficult to tolerate after a level. It is nothing less than sound terrorism,” said Sakuntala Roy, who resides at a multi-storied located near AMRI Hospital besides Dhakuria bridge. Such has been the situation that police commissioner Rajeev Kumar had to give written instructions to the deputy commissioners to the various divisions to carry out checks. Middle level officers though said that it was already too late. “The markets are flooded with illegal firecrackers. They are cheaper than the ones that emit lights and without a long term plan this year round, this year threatens to be worse than the past couple of years,” said an officer from southeast division.
Police say the market names might have changed, but not the products. Kalipatkas have been renamed Chutphuts and double-sound Dodomas, Navarangs. Generators being passed off as flowerpots (Tubris) burst like chocolate bombs instead of releasing a fountain of light.
But that is not all. On Sunday night, The Watgunge police had seized a bag full of illegal firecrackers from a Garden Reach bus heading towards Howrah. When the bag was emptied, the cops found 23 spare parts of .9mm pistol parts in the bag. “In the past two months, six modules of fire arm manufacturers have been nabbed. We are certain that the consignment was headed for Howrah where the parts were to be assembled. This Diwali season, we need to be careful of what is being passed off as crackers,” said an IPS officer.
Spreading awareness is fine but it needs to be followed up with tough policing, admitted senior officers. “The number of arrests and the volume of seizure are much less this year compared with previous years,” said an officer. “This year pollution control board officials have not joined us in raids as they were busy with their programmes.” The PCB though claims it has now formed seven teams that will be assisting the cops in tracing all those who burst illegal crackers.