Taking advantage of the situation with no political rule in the civic body, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has decided to strictly implement its policy for firecracker stalls and file a police complaint against the illegal stalls that would come up in the city.
The PMC administration gives permission to temporary firecracker stalls in open plots, which are finalised after considering the safety of citizens. It has completely banned firecracker stalls on roads, footpaths and congested areas due to safety reasons.
The civic administration in an order issued by Deputy Municipal Commissioner Madhav Jagtap said this is as per the Supreme Court’s directions on a petition filed in 2015. The state government communicated the PMC on November 5, 2018, on taking appropriate steps as per the Supreme Court’s directions.
The in-charge of all the 15 ward offices have accordingly been directed to strictly implement the PMC policy on permission for firecracker stalls and take police action as well as black list those, who do not follow the policy and set up illegal stalls, for one year.
All the concerned departments involved in giving permission for firecracker stalls have been given direction that no stall should be permitted on the roads and footpaths. The permission will be given for stalls in the civic, government or private open plots on the condition that all safety rules set by the PMC are followed.
The administration will take an affidavit from permitted firecracker stall owners that they will not overnight open counter or stall illegally. “If there is violation then police should be inform about it and offence be registered and ban them for one year,” an order stated.
The PMC has also decided to open single window system for issuing permission for firecracker stalls as it requires permission of civic city engineer department, health department and fire department.
Incidentally, the PMC administration is under political pressure every year over issuing permission for firecracker stalls and also taking action against illegal stalls but this year the civic general body is not in place due to delay in civic elections for the next five year. The PMC is presently under the rule of an administrator, which is held by the Municipal Commissioner.
