Sena booked again for flouting noise norms

On Thursday night,the police monitored the sound levels at the event and found them to be above the limit. “We have registered an FIR against the organisers for noise pollution as they crossed the permissible limit of 50 dB,” said Suresh Unawane,Senior PI,Shivaji Park police station. Milind Vaidya,the party’s Dadar head,former MLC Anil Parab who filed the petition seeking permission from the court and party secretary Divekar Borkar have been booked under relevant sections of the Bombay Police Act and the Environment Protection Act.

Meanwhile,Anti-noise NGO Awaaz Foundation said that speeches at the event by Bal Thackeray,Uddhav Thackeray,Ramdas Kadam and Manohar Joshi raised noise levels to as much as 85 decibels(dB) with the minimum being 57 dB. These are much above the ambient noise limit of 50 dB prescribed for day time (6 am to 10 pm) in a silence zone according to Noise(Regulation and Control) Rules 2000 enacted by the Ministry of Environment and Forests.

“It is unfortunate that the permission to use loudspeakers in a silence zone was given as it has been proved time and again that you cannot have such low noise levels with a loudspeaker,” said Sumaira Abdulali,convenor of Awaaz. Last year too,the organisers had obtained similar permission from the court,but had been booked for not adhering to the conditions. Awaaz had recorded levels at the event going as high as 93.2 dB due to speeches and bursting of firecrackers. However,the rally was quieter this year,” Abdulali said.

Noise pollution at Shivaji Park has been a nuisance for local residents of the area for many years since it is the traditional venue for many political rallies and other events. Although Shiv Sena has been holding this rally at the ground for decades,the noise norms only came into place when it was declared a silence zone in May last year in response to a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by NGO Wecom Trust.But the order has not eased the resident’s woes as not enough is done to punish violaters,feels Abdulali. “Even though the rally organisers were booked and taken to court last year,nothing much was done about it. I do hope that will change this year,” she said.

The only other possible solution is change of venue,she says. “Although it is possible to maintain noise levels within limits at a venue like this,it may not always be feasible. Thus,so as not to inconvenience residents,there need to be designated places outside city limits for such events,with good transport linkage from the city,” she added.