Deepavali: Chennai police book 354 cases for violation of firecracker norms

Most of the cases were booked for violations in the time stipulations given for bursting of firecrackers; a majority of the cases were in Mylapore, Washermenpet and Pulianthope, police said

The Greater Chennai City Police have booked residents in 354 cases for bursting firecrackers beyond the stipulated time, as well as for other violations on Deepavali.

As per the orders of the Supreme Court as well as under the guidance of the Tamil Nadu government, Chennai Commissioner of Police, Shankar Jiwal, had issued an advisory to the public ahead of Deepavali that stated crackers should be burst only between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. and between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. No firecrackers that had noise levels of over 125 decibels, are to be manufactured, used or sold, the rules said.

Following this, the city police personnel monitored the bursting of crackers by the public and booked cases for violations of these rules. Police said from Sunday morning until Tuesday morning, 271 cases were booked for bursting of crackers beyond the permitted time limits, 14 cases for the running of cracker shops that flouted the norms of the Tamil Nadu government, and 69 cases were booked for crackers that exceeded the sound limit. Altogether, 354 cases were booked for violations in the city, said the police.

“These cases were booked under section 285 (Negligent conduct with respect to fire) of the Indian Penal Code as well as provisions of the City Police Act,“ said a senior police officer.

The maximum number of cases were booked in Mylapore, Pulianthope and Washermenpet areas.

Meanwhile, the control room of the Tamil Nadu Fire and Rescue Services (TNFRS) received 284 calls related to fire accidents on Monday, the day of Deepavali.

Priya Ravichandran, Joint Director, Northern Region, TNFRS said, “ Over 1,000 personnel were on duty in Chennai city. We attended 180 calls on Deepavali related to fire due to the bursting crackers. Compared to last year’s Deepavali, which had only 15 incidents, we had higher number of calls this time around, because it was sunny. [Last year was wet]. Most of the cases were of medium fires and of burning combustible materials that were outside residential or commercial buildings.”