28 January 2005

To
Mr A N Roy
Commissioner of Police
Mumbai

Dear Mr Roy,

There was a musical concert organised by "Celebrate Bandra" to raise funds in aid of Tsunami survivors in India. Laudable cause it is. According to an anouncement in the news item in Metro Bandra of Mid-day of 21 Jan 2005, it was to be held in St Andrew's auditorium.

I heard following story on the event.

1.    The event took place not in an enclosed auditotium but on the open ground of St Adrew's School. There were about 5000 people attending.
2.    The programme commenced at about 7 pm instead of scheduled 6 pm.
3.    The programme was scheduled for four hours.
4.    The Holi Family Hospital made complaint to the organisers or the Police that noise was causing disturbance to patients in the hospital.
5.    The organisers mentioned about the complaint from the hospital and excused themselves for having to lower the speaker volume; in reality they did just marginally.
6.    The organisers had been anouncing during the programme that they would be concluding the programme with the National Anthem.
7.    The programme had to be abruptly closed at 10 pm as Police came in to 'enforce' the 10 pm deadline for use of loudspeakers in unenclosed place.

The fact that there was a complaint from the hospital about the noise level causing disturbance, two points become evident. First one is that there was no regard given by the organisers to maintain the decibel levels within the specified levels in the Noise Rule. The convenor of the event is an environmentalist! Second, Police who must have given permission for use of loudspeakers was an onlooker to the violation of the rule. Police should have intervened suo moto.

Another fact which needs to be verified is whether the venue was in the silence zone. As there was a complaint from the hospital and if they got disturbed by the loudness of the music, it is most likely that the venue was within 100m from the hospital, hence in silent zone. Police is responsible to verify and certify that a given venue is not within a silence zone or is in an enclosed auditirium before granting permission. Police is also to ensure that the organisers keep the noise levels within the specified limits if the venue is not in the silence zone.

Police seems to have got into action at 10 pm while it should have done that much earlier, if granting permission was not incorrect.

I understand that there was violation of the noise rule at Malad as well as in the campus of IIT Bombay (on 25 Jan 2005)

These are instances brought to your notice. I have done so in regard to the Kala Ghoda Festival and the 108th Anniversary celebration at Chowpatty Bandstand. (please refer to the website given below for quick reference)
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Regards

Sudhir Badami

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

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