24 January 2005

          Mr. A N Roy
          Commissioner of Police, Mumbai

          Dear Mr. Roy,
 

     I am writing this mail essentially to bring to your notice, the violation of Hon'ble
     Bombay High Court Order on Noise. I feel the Police is responsible for this as I have
     written to you earlier why it is so on three occasions as listed below. It is
     disappointing not to receive any response from you on these and yet violations
     continue from time to time.

     1.     Mail dated 5 Nov 2004 On Seminar "Towards Noise Free Mumbai" 19 Oct 2004
     2.    Mail dated 10 Nov 2004 "Police have a blast till midnight"
     3.    Mail dated 16 Nov 2004 "Crackers now - and not now!"

     You could refer to these on the website http://personal.vsnl.com/aspirations.

     A note dated 5 January 2005 "Diluting effectiveness of Noise Rule" written just
     prior to the Kala Ghoda Art Festival can also be referred to on the said website.

     I will highlight two instance of recent occurrence which have violated the Hon'ble
     Bombay High Court Orders and I could attribute these to Police Headquarters either
     not disseminating the essence of the Noise Rule or the Hon'ble Bombay High Court
     Order to its various Police Stations or the local Police Station ignoring the directives
     from the HQ.

     The first occurrence is related to the Kala Ghoda Festival. Police gave permission to
     the Kala Ghoda Festival Association to use loudspeaker in the Silence Zone, although
     Police were aware of the fact that the entire Rampart Row being in the Silence Zone
     as they had denied the Association in 2003 from using loudspeaker for the very
     reason. Now that Police had given permission to use loudspeaker with amplification of
     less than 3.5 W, apparently under the Police Act on making nuisance in public place,
     they seem to have forgotten that it is the Noise Rule under EP Act that supersedes all
     previous acts related to environment protection which included Noise. This is despite
     the fact that the four senior most officials of the Police in Mumbai and the state,
     including yourself and ACP (L&O) Mr Ahmed Javed, participated in the seminar
     mentioned above as panelists. In response to the petition filed by Kala Ghoda
     Association, Hon'ble Bombay High Court gave a ruling that the rules be observed.

     The second occurrence that occurred was yesterday, 23 January 2005 at Chowpatty
     Bandstand. The occasion was Netaji Subhashchandra Bose's 108th birth anniversary.
     Chowpatty Bandstand's extreme end is well within 100 m of D'Sa Hospital and B.K.M.
     School and the Sodha Nursing Home. Again, the Police had given permission to use
     loudspeaker to the organisers.

     As per the Hon'ble Bombay High Court ruling, Police is to verify and certify that the
     location of the loud speakers is not in a Silence Zone.

     Under the Court directive, measurements of the proposed stage location at Kala
     Ghoda was taken by the Police and no unit was specified and a figure of 120
     mentioned for the closest spot from the Church opposite Lion Gate of the Naval Dock.
     When it occurred that Ms Sumaira Abdulali, respondent to the writ, had also made a
     check, the stated dimension was 38 m or so; clearly that the measurement recorded in
     feet and unit not shown to make it appear that the location is beyond 100m. Another
     measurement was asked for by the Court during the lunch break on the day of hearing
     and this time the authenticity of Ms Sumaira Abdulali was established.

     In the case of Chowpatty Band Stand, I brought this fact to the officer on duty at
     the Police Chowki on the Walkeshwar Road, opposite the Band Stand, barely 20m
     from the venue and he agreed that the verification of Silence Zone was not done by
     the Gamdevi Police Station before granting permission. Thankfully, when the
     organisers came to him to ask for permission to burst crackers, I was present in the
     chowki and we explained that the location being silence zone, even loudspeaker
     permission was given by oversight, but now that it was known to be so, crackers
     should not be burst. The organisers obliged.

     What I am driving at is that it requires only a simple act of verifying and certifying
     that the location of holding a function is in silence zone or not, and if it is, whether
     the function is in the open environment or enclosed (sound proof like theatres) and
     accordingly permit use of loudspeakers. The EP Act/Noise Rule also specifies that the
     horn type of loudspeakers should not be used and that the noise levels must be kept
     within the limits specified. To measure the levels, you are aware that every division of
     the Police in Mumbai has been given a decibel meter by an NGO and also that as per
     Hon'ble Bombay High Court Order, every Police Station is to have one.

     Once people realise that Police is serious about containing Noise, they will begin with
     compliance of Noise Rule just as they do not forget to put on seat belt in the car.

     Every time the Police slackens on Noise, noise makers take it that they have license to
     make noise, whether it disturbs others or not. The two instances of Noise Rule
     violation are not the only ones happening in the city, I am sure.
 

     --
     Regards

     Sudhir Badami

     +91 98216 85072
     Email ID: badami@vsnl.com
                    badami@iitbombay.org
                    sudhirbadami@gmail.com

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