Cops inspect the pandal at Santosh Mitra Square on Thursday, following up on the photograph carried by Metro. Picture by Amit Datta

Cops and firemen hit the street on Thursday inspecting pandals and identifying more than 30 puja organisers who have violated the court-approved guidelines.

“It will take us at least two days to complete the survey. Once the findings are collated, we will decide our next course of action,” said the joint commissioner of police (headquarters), Jawed Shamim.

In the central division, a team from Muchipara police station scanned several pandals during the day.

“The pandal at Sealdah’s Santosh Mitra Square has a replica of the Statue of Liberty fitted atop. As a result, the height of the pandal is much more than 40 feet. We have noted this down and alerted the organisers,” said an officer.

The government guidelines, which the high court had turned into a verdict on Tuesday, state that the “superstructure” of a pandal must not be more than 40 feet high.

At Umesh Mitra Smriti Sangha in Sealdah’s Ramkanai Adhikari Lane, the cops found no gap between the pandal and the boundary wall of a house. According to the rules, there has to be at least 4 feet space on all four sides of a pandal. At Lebutala Sarbojanin, the gates are smaller than the mandated 12x14 feet.

An official of the fire services department said: “Most pandals that our teams visited violated one or more norms.”

The civic body, which has so far been content only with seeking a declaration from organisers that they would abide by police and fire norms, has finally waken up to the need of having a set of rules to protect its citizens.

“We need to have some rules to prevent the misuse of civic properties — such as roads, pavements and parks — on which pujas are held,” mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya said on Thursday.