Diwali 2018: Delhi police registers 562 FIRs for bursting of crackers beyond deadline

New Delhi: Many in Delhi-NCR violated the Supreme Court orders on Diwali night, said reports on Thursday. Confirming the same, Delhi police informed media how the violators were pulled up. Delhi DCP said, “Seventy-two FIRs were registered under Explosives Act and 75 people were arrested. As much as 1,705 kgs of non-green, non-certified firecrackers were recovered.” He added, “The Supreme Court had allotted 8 PM-10 PM as the time to burst crackers. In this connection, 562 FIRs were registered for violation of the apex court order and 323 people arrested.”

Reports suggested that the air quality level of Delhi-NCR shot up to ‘hazardous’ level because of a clear violation of the apex court orders. On Diwali night, authorities took over 300 calls about fire incidents, including an incident in which two children were killed and two others were injured, officials said on Thursday.

According to the Delhi Fire Services (DFS), 271 fire-related calls were received by its offices till



Diwali midnight on Diwali and 74 more calls till 8 AM on Thursday. A DFS official said that though the number of fire-related calls was more as compared to previous years, there has been a decline in the cases of fire triggered by burning of firecrackers.

Out of the total calls, 89 were fire at garbage and dump yards. Fires were also reported from factories and at houses due to domestic items and electrical wires, DFS officials said. Maximum calls were received from west and northwest districts of Delhi.

“Even last year, there was a ban on sale of firecrackers but we got close to 200 calls. This year, there were restrictions on bursting of firecrackers and only green firecrackers were sold in the market but there have been frequent calls related to fire-incidents,” the DFS officers said.

Besides the 59 permanent fire stations in the national capital, the department had set up temporary stations in different locations across the city to attend to calls of fire.