More than 3,500 persons were apprehended in overnight block raids by the city police starting from new year’s eve to the wee hours of new year’s day, with the largest number of arrests made for various traffic rule violations. Out of total 3503 arrested, non-bailable charges have been slapped against 148 persons.

While 863 were nabbed for disorderly conduct in public places including eve-teasing, nearly 2,600 were booked and fined for traffic rule violations with 1,289 fined for riding bikes without helmets, 654 for carrying more than one pillionrider, 531 for rash and drunken driving and 123 for other offences on the road, police said.

Police also arrested four for creating nuisance while 50 were taken into custody as a preventive measure and 15 have been charged under specific sections. “18 vehicles were confiscated and more than 234 litres of illicit liquor was seized during the raid. During the raids, more than 21 kilograms of cannabis (ganja) was also seized,” said a senior police officer.

Police also recovered 2.5 kilograms of fireworks and one single shot firearm during the raid. Although the raids were carried out in different parts of the city, maximum numbers of arrests were reported from various neighbourhoods of South Kolkata. Over 5,000 police personnel were deployed across the city especially in Park Street, Esplanade and New Market areas since Christmas eve to prevent any untoward incident.

As many as 1,726 people were apprehended in the city and its adjoining areas between Christmas eve and Christmas day last week. Police deployed a 60 member “crack team” comprising 30 male and 30 female commandos to prevent harassment of women and eve-teasing. Kolkata welcomes the new decade: Kolkata celebrated the first day of 2020 with love, food, drinks and much more.

Restaurants and cafes were pre-booked with Kolkatans not missing any chance to party. All the party zones charged high entry fees. Due to the swelling crowd, many restaurants at Park Street turned away people. People visited Allen Park filled with beautiful lights, soulful music and delicious food. Picnic spots like Alipore Zoo, Victoria Memorial and Indian Museum were also filled with families, especially children who enjoyed these places while celebrating the new year.

In Alipore Zoo, huge number of people gathered in front of the cages, holding their toddlers’ hands. “The festive ambience of the zoo is charismatic. We come here every year to welcome the New Year,” said Rituparna Das who was there with her kids. Another such loved location is Victoria Memorial where people gathered in huge number.

Visitors of all agse were seen celebrating in the chilly weather. Alipore Zoo recorded a larger footfall than in last year. Around 88,000 people visited the zoo this year. Victoria Memorial also received a huge footfall on both 31 and 1 January. Lakhs of devotees visited Dakshineswar Temple since early this morning to offer prayers to Goddess Bhabatarini and Cossipore Uddyanbati on the occasion of Kalpataru Utsav, which is celebrated on this day every year in memory of spiritual guru Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa. Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar along with his wife visited Cossipore Udyanbati. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee also conveyed her greetings to all on the occasion of “Kalpataru Utsav”.