delhi polices pcr vans and helpline numbers were extremely busy on diwali night with hundreds of delhiites calling the police control room pcr and asking them to stop their neighbours from bursting crackers out of the 1400 calls received through the day 634 firs were registered against offenders who were bursting crackers while the usual nature of calls received by the delhi polices pcr vans on festivals ranges from complaints and prank calls to even intoxicated callers this diwali calls to pcr vans were dominated by citizens who were worried about air pollution officials at the pcr told us that the complainants demanded immediate arrest of neighbours who do not care about delhis rising pollution one of the callers even asked the cops to come immediately because his pets had hid themselves in a cupboard thanks to insensitive neighbours while another called said that a group of boys was dancing on the road and he was sure that they would burst crackersoffenders said diwali wont be shubh without crackers delhi policepolice officials told us that most people who were stopped from bursting crackers said that they had bought crackers from meerut and agra and claimed that they were green a constable deployed on pcr duty on diwali said we tried to explain to people why they should not burst crackers and most of them agreed but many people had plenty of excuses one person said that he had decided not to burst crackers until he received a message from a friend who told him where he could buy crackers from he told us pehle usse bhi arrest karo we left him after a warning there were a number of people who also said that its inauspicious to not burst crackers patakha nahi jalayenge toh diwali ashubh ho jayegianother constable posted in east delhi told us there were many whom when we asked to stop bursting crackers offered us sweets those youngsters who were bursting crackers in parks left their bags after spotting pcrs but in congested areas it was difficult to locate where the noise was coming from and when questioned everyone said it wasnt them but their neighbours634 firs 398 arrestsmadhur verma dcp new delhi said our district police teams and pcr vans were patrolling through the night to arrest defaulters we registered 634 firs on diwali night we registered 562 firs under section 188 of the ipc disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant out of which 323 persons were arrested and released on bail seventy two firs were registered under the explosives act and 75 persons were arrested