This Deepavali season, the city police have formed a Joint Task Force (JTF) with representatives from other agencies to ensure fire safety at 62 playgrounds where crackers will be sold for the next five days. This follows the firecracker accident in Attibele in October that killed a total of 15.
This JTF will be led by Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), with representatives from Fire and Emergency Services, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike, Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (Bescom), and Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB). The task force will be a roving squad and conduct surprise checks to ensure all permit conditions are followed by cracker sellers and there are no untoward fire accidents.
“We will take stringent action and book cases against any sellers who violate licence conditions,” city police commissioner B. Dayananda said.
The city police have allowed 320 shops to sell green crackers in the city for five days in 62 playgrounds. Last year, there were only 244 cracker shops in the city. The shop licences were selected through an auction and lottery method. A total of 912 applications had come for shops this year.
The city police have imposed stringent fire safety guidelines on cracker shop owners. While only Indian-made, green crackers are allowed to be sold, each shop should have two entrances, have fire fighting devices, no large quantities of crackers stored, apart from a host of other guidelines.
