West Bengal environment minister Manas Bhuiya on Tuesday asked the West Bengal State Pollution Control Board (WBPCB) to be stringent with noise violators, especially those who play high-pitched music with DJs, and inform police and municipalities during ensuing festive seasons.
“Khali DJ DJ DJ shunchi (I am only hearing complaints about DJ)… DJ music has become a real problem. Please coordinate with police and inform all municipalities and panchayats about the noise norms and take appropriate actions,” said Bhuiya to board chairman Kalyan Rudra and member secretary Rajesh Kumar during a meeting at the environment department.
“I am appealing to all… municipalities, including Kolkata Municipal Corporation, panchayats and other rural bodies, and to police to combat the problem properly so that common people are not inconvenienced,” he said.
A senior WBPCB official said they had passed the information about units supplying microphones, amplifiers, loudspeakers and boxes to all superintendents of police and commissionerates, including Kolkata police, and they were expected to take action before the festive season.
“WBPCB has provided each police station with a sound limiter to demonstrate the set-up to puja committees,” the official said. “We will soon write to all municipalities and others. But we can only request. The actual power to stop noise pollution, including that from DJs, lies with police,” said the official.
“The 2009 notification and the standing high court order make it clear that WBPCB also has the responsibility to control noise pollution along with police,” said Biswajit Mukkherjee, former chief law officer of WBPCB. Environmentalists complained that the sound of DJ musical soirees remained far above the permissible limit.
“Since Ganesh puja we have been regularly receiving complaints about DJ noise violations... and have been forwarding them to the state PCB,” said Naba Dutta of green platform Sabuj Mancha.
According to rules, the permissible limit for commercial areas from 6am to 10pm is 65 decibel and 55 decibel for residential areas.
The limit is 10 decibels lower from 10pm to 6am.