Government reprimanded over noise norms

The Bombay high court on Wednesday reprimanded the government for its failure to implement noise pollution rules in Mumbai. The court has directed the government to provide the chief secretary of Maharashtra with all the orders passed by it in connection with noise pollution. It also asked the chief secretary to hold meetings with the government secretaries concerned in light of those orders and file an independent reply on the issue of noise pollution.

The government on Wednesday filed an affidavit in the court. However, after going through the affidavit, the division bench of Justice Abhay Oka and Justice Amjad Sayed observed that though the police was registering complaints pertaining to noise pollution, but his exercise was futile because the prosecution has been unable to furnish any evidence against the accused in the court owing to lack of equipment to measure decibel levels.

The bench noted that of the 61 complaints pertaining to noise pollution in Mumbai, the police had acted only in 11 cases.

The judges observed that there was hardly any compliance with the high court orders of August 10, August 11, August 12 and August 16, 2016 pertaining to implementation of noise pollution rules. In these orders, the high court had asked the government to enforce the noise pollution rules, but the affidavit shows that there has hardly been any compliance of those orders.

The bench issued notices to the assistant commissioners of police in suburban Borivali and Ulhasnagar region of nearby Thane district because they failed to take action against the violators of noise pollution rules.