806 people booked in Mumbai for violating High Court timings on bursting firecrackers

Senior police officers said the Mumbai Police control room received over 5,000 calls complaining about the violation of the HC order.

The HC on November 10 had ordered bursting of crackers only between 8 pm and 10 pm on Diwali, keeping in mind the city’s worsening air pollution.

The police had stepped up patrolling and deployed additional manpower across the city to ensure residents complied with the HC order. Residents also complained to the police about instances of violation on X.

The police said they started taking action against violators from Friday after the HC order following which 784 cases were registered till Sunday night. “Penal action was taken against 734 people while other relevant action was initiated against 72 others,” an officer said.

Earlier this week, senior officials of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) told The Indian Express that squads, which have been deployed in wards to monitor construction works and debris dumping, would be asked to monitor bursting of crackers at the ward level.

However, civic officials said on Monday that even though there was HC’s order on the duration for bursting crackers, there was no written rule in place on the basis of which officials can penalise violators.

“The civic body is not empowered to take action unless a written order is given to us by the government. Our officials can only carry out sensitisation drives, and before Diwali we held several meetings with resident welfare associations and Advanced Locality Management (ALM) groups urging them to not flout the rules,” an official said.

Asif Zakaria, a former corporator from Bandra, said crackers were burst all through the day.

“Crackers were burst from early Sunday morning and went past midnight. Residents have been calling me and complaining about how they called the 100 helpline and lodged complaints,” he said.

“However, the issue is the civic authorities aren’t empowered to take action on such a large scale neither they have adequate manpower to do so,” he added.

Ravi Raja, another former corporator, said, “The civic authorities’ primary agenda is to carry out a complete crackdown on government and private agencies executing infrastructure works in the city. Asking people to limit bursting of crackers for a day won’t help much unless the rules are not followed on the ground everyday.”