Loudspeaker volume in mosque brought down

Another Residents Watch impact story

By OUR FEATURE WRITER

The other day, we received a complaint from Y Vinay. The resident of Sector 6 in HSR Layout was happy to find Residents Watch at a neighbourhood supermarket. When he came across the many success stories of the magazine’s Whatsapp and Telegram group, he was more impressed. One story that particularly caught his attention was how proactive members of this magazine’s social media group brought down the decibel levels of mosques and temples in the area.

Vinay was amazed by this story because he and his neighbours were not able to fix a similar problem in their area since December 2016. “I live in sector-6 and my neighbours in 15th, 16th, 16th A, 16th B and 17th Cross noticed that a mosque in the vicinity is using the loudspeaker in excess of the prescribed decibel limits set by the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) and the Karnataka Police Act,” he wrote to us. “Until now, we were unaware of the existence of this forum in HSR, and were following up on the issue independently. So far, we have written to Madivala and HSR police station, KSPCB and DCP (South East Division, Koramangala) to resolve this issue. Apart from the usual lip service, no action is taken and they keep passing around the buck.”

We activated our neighbourhood cell and sought information on the mosque in question. Soon, we found that it was Masjid E Aqsa in Muneshwara Nagar neighbouring Sector 6. One of the residents even gave us the number of the person in charge of the mosque. We spoke to him and he had this to say: “When there were complaints even previously, we had brought down the volume. In the mornings, people tend to think the sound is more because it’s the wee hours. However, we will bring down the volumes further if it’s inconveniencing the residents so much.”

When Vinay was informed of this development, he was much pleased. However, the story is far from over. “There is a temple close to the mosque that has also started using loudspeakers in the mornings to play suprabhata. They also need to tone it down in the mornings.”

This is going to be a recurring issue when the managements change or they realise that they can get away with the noise pollution. We urge our Muslim, Hindu and Christian brothers and sisters to take note of this noise pollution and use their good offices to tone down the volumes in their neighbourhood. Each of us can just go over and talk to the priest or management committee member and cajole them into doing your bidding. This personal touch is the only way this issue can be resolved. The more number of people go and make their displeasure known, the more vigilant will these authorities get.