Guidelines for clubs, housing complexes

Police have issued separate guidelines for the high-rise residential buildings and the clubs that are organising Kali Puja, asking them to follow the firecracker norms ordered by Calcutta High Court.

The presidents and secretaries of the clubs as well as the residents’ welfare associations of housing complexes have been told that they will be held responsible for any violation of firecracker norms during Diwali.

Senior officers of Kolkata police said the types of violations reported from housing societies are different from those reported from clubs. “Hence, the advisories to the gated communities are different from those issued for clubs,” said an assistant commissioner of police.

Residential buildings

• Meetings: Police are meeting executive committee members of residents’ welfare associations (RWA), telling them that only green firecrackers can be used.
• Time compliance: The police have told the associations to ensure that firecrackers are burst between 8pm and 10pm on Diwali (November 12). Nitin Maheswari, a resident of Urbana, said their managing body has circulated the guideline about the timings of bursting firecrackers.
• Gates cannot be locked: The guidelines issued by the Bidhannagar police state that the main gate of any tower at housing complexes cannot be locked during Kali Puja and Diwali. The police must be granted access to any tower when they turn up in response to a noise complaint, an officer at the Bidhannagar commissionerate said.
• QR codes: The police have asked the RWAs to scan the QR codes on packets containing firecrackers to ensure that only green crackers are burst. The codes need to be scanned by the CSIR-NEERI Green QR app. The secretary of South City Residency, Manoj Gupta, said: “We will have a security team that will do random scan of the QR codes on fireworks boxes. If it is found that anything other than green crackers are being burst, we will get it stopped.” The housing complex will also have a “fire compliance team”.
• Onus on RWAs: The police said the secretary and president of the RWAs of all gated communities have been informed that they will be held responsible for any violation of firecracker norms on their premises. G. Bhattacharya, president of the Puja committee of a housing complex in Garia, said: “We are issuing notices and making repeated appeals to the residents to follow the rules.”

Clubs

• Loudspeakers: The police said clubs organising Kali Puja and puja committees have been informed that loudspeakers can only be used between 7am and 11am and again from 6pm to 10pm on November 12 and between 7am and 11am on November 13.
• Silence zone: No loudspeakers are allowed within 100m of silence zones, including hospitals, educational institutions and courts.
• Ban on DJ sets: No DJ sound sets will be allowed in immersion processions.

Helplines

• Distress number: 100
• Lalbazar control room: 033-22143230
• Bidhannagar police control room: 033-23358788
• WBSEDCL: 19121
• CESC: 1912

Punishment

• Manufacture, sale and possession of banned firecrackers can land the offender in jail for up to three years. The offender can also be fined up to Rs 5,000.