A soiree in progress on the second anniversary Kali puja of Jodhpur Youth Club, in Jodhpur Park, on Saturday. Picture by Bishwarup Dutta

Cracker bursts shook the city and its fringes on Kali puja-Diwali night, mocking the state government’s ban and the police claim of “extensive” raids to pre-empt the menace.

“The violation was even reported from the military camp on the Maidan, though state environment secretary M.L. Meena had written to the GOC (Bengal area), informing the army authorities about the ban,” said police commissioner Gautam Mohan Chakrabarti.

Among the other offender areas were Ballygunge Circular Road, Lord Sinha Road, Camac Street, Rashbehari Avenue, Golf Green, Bowbazaar and Hatibagan, and a few fringe pockets like Baguiati, Barasat and Sodepur.

An official said the state pollution control board headquarters in Salt Lake had received 40 complaints of noise norm violation on Friday and 20 on Saturday. Last year, around 50 complaints were lodged. “Saturday’s complaints were mostly about the use of loudspeakers in para programmes till late at night. The complaints mostly came from Kasba, Hatibagan, Jadavpur, Behala and Baguiati,” the official added.

“Most complaints of cracker ban violation poured in from central and south Calcutta. Around 484 kg of banned fireworks were seized on Kali puja night and more than 800 arrested,” said police commissioner Chakrabarti.

The worst offenders were multi-storeyed buildings, where banned firecrackers were indiscriminately burst on rooftops. “We searched the roof of a Ballygunge Circular Road highrise where a prominent politician lives,” Chakrabarti added.

Echoing the environment department’s stand, the top cop pointed out that the noise nuisance could be rooted out only if crackers could be seized before they reach the retail outlets.

Biswajit Mukherjee, the senior law officer in the environment department, agreed that the cracker ban violation was most rampant in the highrises, though the situation in silent zones like hospitals was “better than last year”.

“We came across several instances of violation in the multi-storeyed estates on Ballygunge Circular Road during our inspection on Friday night. A few people were arrested. One of the violators tried to bribe the police,” said Mukherjee.

There was also the problem of “suffocating” smoke. “I received several complaints on Friday night that people were suffering because of the smoke generated from cracker explosions,” said environmentalist Subhas Dutta.