On Friday, the Uttar Pradesh Police removed additional 26,000 loudspeakers from religious places across the state and reduced the volume of 55,000 loudspeakers to the permissible levels as per the guidelines. The action by the UP Police is being taken based on the CM Yogi Adityanath-led state government’s order in which all religious places were asked to comply with the UP Pollution Control Board on loudspeakers by April 30.
This comes a day after the Uttar Pradesh Police took down 11,000 loudspeakers and reduced the volume of 35,000 loudspeakers to the permissible levels. As of April 29, the total number of loudspeakers removed is 37,000. According to the reports, the maximum number of loudspeakers was removed from Lucknow while other cities that saw the maximum impact of the order were Gorakhpur, Varanasi, Meerut, Prayagraj, and Bareilly.
Additional Director General Prashant Kumar on Friday said that the Police had undertaken a statewide drive to remove loudspeakers from religious places and set their volume within permissible limits. He added that loudspeakers were being removed from all religious places without any discrimination.
As reported earlier, the Uttar Pradesh Police is following the High Court order, which has set specific decibel levels for loudspeakers. “The order regarding this has been sent to district administrations. A committee has been formed to look after this. We are also talking to religious leaders as most of the loudspeakers are mounted at religious places. The drive has received a positive response”, Kumar said.
Last week, CM Yogi Adityanath held a meeting with senior officials to discuss the law and order situation in the state. The Uttar Pradesh CM had said that everyone has the right and freedom to follow the religion of their choice but they should ensure that others should not get disturbed. “Though microphones can be used, make sure the sound does not come out of any premises. Other people should not face any problem”, he had noted.
After the order was issued by the state government, many religious leaders from both Hindu and Muslim communities agreed to reduce the volume of the loudspeakers. The first one to bring down the volume was Sri Krishna Janmabhoomi in Mathura. They decided not to broadcast the famous ‘Manglacharan Aarti’ that was played every day for an hour from 5 am on the loudspeaker at Bhagwat Bhawan within the temple premises.
Later, Shaktipeeth Devipatan Tulsipur Temple in Balrampur removed three out of four loudspeakers from its premises and reduced the volume of the remaining loudspeaker as per the guidelines. Gorakhnath Temple in Gorakhpur, Rajeshwari Temple, and Kali Paltan Temple in Meerut also lowered the volume of the loudspeakers. Similar steps have been taken in Kanpur and Ayodhya by the temple authorities
Meanwhile, Maulana Khalid Rasheed Farangi Mahali, Imam, Eidgah, has also issued directives to all Sunni mosques to reduce the volume of the loudspeakers. To date, a total of 37000 loudspeakers from atop various religious places have been taken down in the state of Uttar Pradesh and the volume of 55000 loudspeakers has been reduced to permissible levels.
