Violation of kite flying guidelines: Admn seizes bundles of manja thread

Cuttack: Taking note of grievous injuries and even instances of death during kite flying in the Millennium city during Makara Sankranti in the recent past, a joint team of officials of Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) and the district administration today conducted raids at several kite shops in the city and seized manja thread from some shops.

Acting on a tip-off that the manja thread and plastic thread are being sold in some shops, the district administration conducted raids and seized these items.

Talking to the media, Cuttack Collector Nirmal Chandra Mishra said the district administration would take action against those who violate of guidelines on kite flying and ban on the use of manja and plastic threads.

“If necessary, criminal cases would be registered against the violators”, he added.

Notably, instances of serious injuries caused by the manja and plastic threads were reported in the city in the recent past. The manja is prepared from a mixture of adhesive with glass splinters. Later a coating of this mixture it is applied to the thread. This manja thread is used to easily cut the ordinary thread of other kites during competition. But this thread will cause bleeding injuries if the glass splinters brushes the body of a person.

Apart from these, there were instances of death of the people mostly the youths and teenagers who had fallen from the rooftop of their house while flying kites.

Taking such instances into serious consideration, the district administration had framed specific guidelines on the use of thread and asked the people not to fly kites on the rooftop of their house.