With less than a fortnight to go for the autumn extravaganza, a section of the city?s mega puja organisers has decided to put its foot down against government injunctions.

Eight pujas have been booked by the fire services department in the past 48 hours for violating the safety guidelines; two of them ? Uma Das Lane, in New Market area, and Chandranath Chatterjee Street, in Bhowanipore ? on Tuesday.

In the evening, organisers of some of the more popular pujas spat venom at the police brass, asking them to put in place basic infrastructure before making it mandatory to stick to the guidelines. Well-lit roads topped the demand list of the organisers.

?If the police commissioner drives down BB Ganguly Street and College Street, he will understand our fears. Lakhs of people visit our pandal and most of them have to take that route. Given the state of the roads with tram tracks, who will ensure that there are no accidents?? fumed Pradip Ghosh of Santosh Mitra Square Sarbojanin Durgotsav Committee.

Other puja organisers from the north and central parts of the city echoed Ghosh when they met senior cops during the day. They asserted that the condition of the roads was jeopardising their attempts to ensure glitch-free festivities.

Questions were even raised about the money earmarked to light up certain roads and why, despite availability of funds, they remained ill-lit. ?Parts of Bidhan Sarani, Mahatma Gandhi Road and BB Ganguly Street are in very bad shape. After a spell of rain, they turn into death traps, with water covering up the potholes between the tram tracks and the asphalt. It is of utmost importance that these roads are properly lit,? stressed Badal Bhattacharya of College Square Sarbojanin Durgotsav.

The barricading of roads, strictures regarding use of fire-retardant material and the ban on microphones after 9 pm also had the Puja organisers up in arms. They made it clear that they were not going to bow to the police diktat unless the basics were taken care of.