Community groups and political parties flout time restrictions on the use of loudspeakers; police turn a deaf ear

Devotees bid a final adieu to Ganpati on Sunday, with loud shouts inviting the deity to visit them early the next time round. The ten-day celebrations were incident free, but the immersion processions turned out to be really noisy, resulting in sleepless nights for numerous citizens residing along the major routes, even as police turned a deaf ear to the violations.

Environmental activist Ms Sumaira Abdul Ali has written to the city police that in certain parts of the city loudspeakers blared well past the midnight deadline, notably near Girgaon Chowpatty, the busiest immersion site in the city. The loudspeaker rules were flouted not only by some community groups, but even neighbourhood offices of political parties that exploited the occasion to build the image of their leaders who joined the processionists.

Ms Ali wrote, "At midnight, loudspeakers used in processions were uniformly switched off, but fixed loudspeakers on booths of political parties continued at 90-100dB in the Lamington Road Police jurisdiction, in the presence of the police, and in spite of requests to shut them down. On the Girgaon side, just across the street, these were switched off at about 12.20am. The loudspeakers were used to welcome individual processions and call out names of prominent politicians accompanying them. They continued beyond 1am."

In Dadar, loud music was played by a DJ, who local residents say was sponsored by a politician. A resident said, "the procession blocked one side of the road and the noise was so loud that it felt like the road was throbbing. The presence of policemen didn't help, as they looked on quietly, reluctant to control the crowd or the sound levels."

Loudspeakers blared in residential areas and silence zones in parts of south Mumbai, Mahim, Matunga, Worli and Parel. Trucks with DJs, moved slowly past hospitals, or even stopped for long periods as they went by political party booths. And in the absence of police in many places, it was a disco party on the streets, irrespective of whether it was a residential area or a silence zone. Firecrackers were also burnt freely in several areas like Mahim, Santacruz, Parel and Opera House.

In Thane, just northeast of Mumbai, also, loudspeakers blared well beyond the midnight deadline, at immersion sites. Further inland, in Navi Mumbai, the processions were a lot quieter and largely kept to the prescribed time limits. Ms Ali and her co-workers attributed this to the alertness of police in the satellite city.

"With few exceptions, mandals and processions did not have loudspeakers. A combination of effective pre-emptive police action and awareness campaigns, following the recent Bombay High Court order to control noise, appears to have had an effect," she said.