An outgoing Calcutta Municipal Corporation councillor has in a Facebook post requested people to not burst firecrackers this Diwali, citing the threat posed by “poisonous gas” to Covid-19 patients in home isolation.

“Corona patients… have respiratory problems…. Let all of us pledge that we and our family members will not burst crackers this Diwali because of the Covid-19 pandemic…. The poisonous gas will be deadly for Covid-19 patients in home quarantine,” reads the Thursday post by Goutam Halder, the outgoing councillor of Ward 4, a north Calcutta pocket near the Tallah water tank that has over 40,000 voters.

“You should request people in your neighbourhood to desist from bursting crackers this year…. That will set a great example,” says the post, which has been welcomed by netizens and shared 29 times as of Friday evening.

Halder, a first-time councillor, has reasserted what doctors and public health experts have been saying — the Covid-19 pandemic has made it all the more necessary to prevent a spurt in air pollution during Diwali.

But not many of his colleagues have been so forthcoming. Many public health experts felt leaders across the political divide could have done better by asking people not to step out during Durga Puja.

Halder did not mince words. “In every neighbourhood, there must be several people who have tested positive and are in home isolation. Many of them are senior citizens with pre-existing medical conditions. I think bursting firecrackers this Kali Puja and Diwali will be extremely selfish,” he told Metro over the phone.

Halder said he would visit households in his ward with leaflets and speak to residents to discourage them from bursting firecrackers. A series of billboards is being set up with the same message, he said.