Kolkata spent a deafening night on the occasion of Kali puja. The elderly lay awake, the sick gasped for breath while the pets of households cowered into a corner.
Frantic calls to the representatives of law turned out to be futile. Even when the men in uniform arrived at the spot, they seized the cache of fire crackers.
Of course, there were arrests. In all, 592 persons were taken into custody for bursting noisy firecrackers.
After all, the police authorities had laid down that the bursting of fireworks would start at 8.00 pm and continue for the next two hours. If the plight of Kolkatans was any yardstick, this was given a go by .
A group of volunteers going around for a first hand view read hearing of the damage wrought by fire crackers found to their dismay that even hospital premises facing the onslaught of blinding light and deafening sound. This group came across fire crackers being burst within the premises of R G Kar Medical College and Hospital near the half bust of Abhaya who needs no introduction.
Papiya Adhikari, who represents BJP in Tollygunge Assembly segment in the state Assembly claimed fire crackers have curative powers. She had once been an actress and appears once in a while in television serials and talk shows.
One and all are in the dark where she gathered this knowledge. Obviously the city’s sufferings on one of its noisiest celebrations cut no ice with her.
Adhikari was economical in disclosing her source of knowledge which amounted to a torture on the eardrums. If she later chose to apologise for her comment, it was indeed too much too late.
An appeal on social media to the city police to act by former BJP Rajya Sabha member Rupa Ganguly mysteriously disappeared. No prizes for guessing the reason behind the withdrawal of her comment.
The situation boiled down to the worsening of the city’s Air Quality Index ( AQI). It is small consolation for Kolkatans that Delhi outdid it on this dubious index.
One heard of bursting green crackers by the occupants of the corridors of power. It seems these green crackers were not green enough.
Leniency of the law enforcers this particular is stated to be behind the shooting up of the sound pollution. This contention does not quite stand to reason.
The men in uniform could not do otherwise. Chief minister invoking the awakening of the Sanatanis have defended the excess.
To him this was no deviation from normalcy. He has defended the cracker malaise and attributed the criticism against it to one group of his political opponents, the Communists.
One of his Cabinet colleagues, minister for urban development and municipal affairs, Agnimitrs Paul have voiced her concern about the din. But her words about the flagrant violation of the rules are likely to be muted nay silenced by the chief minister’s endorsement of the bursting of crackers.
In this connrction, an incident during the early years of Trinamool Congress regime readily comes to mind when the then chief minister Mamata Banerjee walked into Bhabanipur police station to secure the release of some “merry makers” who had been arrested as the sound of their amusement roused patients from their beds of a nearby government hospital. Post release the men in uniform knew better when to overlook and when to oversee.
There is no denying the fact that the campaign against sound pollution during Kali puja and Deepavali has fallen on deaf ears over the years. There is hardly any concern that such collective insensitivity is endengering public health.
Fire crackers add to the teeth of the sound pollution. The contention has been corroborated by research.
Yet people remain adamant about endangering their lives and others in upholding religious rituals. It is unfortunate that a discourse on pollution is acquiring a majoritarian edge these days.
Politicians are “peddling” their wisdom. They will continue to do so as long as the people who have voted them to power are oblivious of the vicious pitfall of fire crackers.Â
