pollution II

Pressure horns adding to rising decibels in city
Rajay Deep/TNS

Bathinda, April 14
The level of noise pollution, which is nowadays at its peak, has made the life of residents in Bathinda miserable thanks to the apathy of the authorities concerned.
As the pollution control board, the traffic police and the district transport office, all have turned a deaf ear, the violators of the law do not even mind blaring musical pressure horns in areas that are regarded as silence zones.
As per the Noise Pollution (Regulation and Control) Rules, an area comprising not less than 100 metres around hospitals, nursing homes, educational institutions, courts and capital complex may be declared as silence zones.
But the seriousness of the authorities supposed to enforce the laws pertaining to noise pollution can be gauged from the fact that hardly any of them have compiled any data for action against the violators.
Doctors say the immediate and acute effect of noise pollution is impairment of hearing. Besides, the first effects are anxiety and stress reaction and in extreme cases, fright, abortion.
"I feel disturbed with the pressure horns blaring old Hindi and Punjabi music tunes. The way the drivers of heavy vehicles keep pressing the horns, it seems they do it for their enjoyment," said an elderly Subhash Kumar, who runs a refreshment store on the Bathinda-Goniana road.
"It's not just the youngsters and truckers, even the VIPs, without bothering about the inconvenience to others, enjoy making their way by constantly blowing sirens," lamented Parmod Goyal, a shopkeeper.
Though the city has dozens of cops to check violation of traffic rules, hardly any drive was ever launched to book motorists using pressure horns with jarring sounds.
"We are aware of the fact that honking unnecessarily at intersections, silence zones, hospitals and schools are all liable for prosecution but the rules are not implemented due to limited manpower and other pressing problems," said an official of the traffic police.
The District Transport Officer (DTO) Amandeep Bansal, when asked, claimed to have carried out the drive to issue challans to the violators at times. But he failed to provide the details about the number of violators nabbed during the last few months.
The executive engineer of the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB), stationed at Bathinda, SS Dhaliwal said, "Our office is facing acute shortage of staff and until the vacancies are filled up, it is impossible to set things right."
"Moreover, we can just measure noise pollution, that too, if some complaint lands with us or if the officials in the district administration ask us to do so. But in the past couple of moths, none of these happened," the Xen said.