Mumbai Police Ban Sky Lanterns Ahead Of Diwali Citing 'Grave Danger To Lives'

Ahead of Diwali, Mumbai Police has banned sky lanterns for a month due to safety concerns. Flying sky lanterns had purportedly started a fire in an under-construction building in January 2015.

Mumbai, Oct 22 (PTI) Ahead of Diwali, Mumbai police on Tuesday banned the use, sale and storage of sky lanterns for a month as a safety and security measure, an official said.

The ban would be in force from October 23 to November 21, an order issued by a senior police official said.

Sky lanterns could pose a grave danger to lives and damage public property, the order said.

Violators of the order will be booked under Section 223 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the official said.

Flying sky lanterns had purportedly started a fire in a 36-storey under-construction building in Malad East in January 2015, prompting the then Mumbai fire chief, P Rahangdale, to request police to ban such lanterns. 

75 of 2,537 polling stations in Mumbai to be set up in pandals

Mumbai, Oct 22 (PTI) Only 75 of the total 2,537 polling stations in Mumbai city district will operate from makeshift pandals during the Maharashtra assembly elections for want of pucca buildings, a senior official said on Tuesday.

During the Lok Sabha elections as many as 336 polling stations in the city were set up in pandals, said collector Sanjay Yadav.

Pandals will be used only where pucca buildings are not available, he told reporters ahead of the November 20 elections.

Mumbai city district, which covers the island city of Mumbai excluding the suburbs, has ten assembly constituencies. To shorten the queues, the number of polling stations has been increased through "rationalisation", and 156 polling stations were shifted to high-rise buildings and 100 stations to housing societies this time, the collector said.

There are 25.36 lakh voters in Mumbai city district, and of these, the highest 2.81 lakh voters are in Sion-Koliwada assembly constituency, while the lowest 2.05 lakh voters are registered in Wadala constituency.

After the rationalisation of polling stations, officials have undertaken the `Know Your Polling Station' drive to make voters aware of their designated polling station, Yadav said.

They are sending letters to every voter, and 50 percent of voters are already covered, he added.

Voters can find the location of a polling station through Google map or by scanning a QR code, the collector said, adding that the rationalization of polling stations will be successful only when voters know where their polling station is located.

Since the code of conduct kicked in, he received 17 complaints of violation of rules, most of them about hoardings, the collector said.

The complaints were disposed of in average 47 to 48 minutes against the stipulated time of 100 minutes, Yadav said.

Ashwini Joshi, additional municipal commissioner of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, said at every polling station voters will be provided "assured minimum facilities" including drinking water, dustbins, wheeler and ramp facility and a waiting area.

Joshi, who is also an additional district election officer, further said that 60 percent of polling stations are located either in BMC schools or other structures.

Abhinay Deshmukh, additional commissioner of police, Mumbai, said the police has set up 30 static surveillance committees and 30 flying squads to check malpractices. 

This report first appeared on logicallyfacts.com, and has been republished on ABP Live as part of a special arrangement. ABP Live has edited the headline, text script and image of the report while republishing.