Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday likened the noise generated by DJ systems to that of an “earthquake”, and said the state government is working to build a consensus on restricting the use of high-decibel DJ systems during festivals and called for a return to traditional ways of celebrating.
“Festivals acquire greater significance when celebrated traditionally, but practices developed over the years cannot be eliminated only through legal action. To do away with such practices, there is a need to have a consensus by holding dialogue among all stakeholders.
We need to move towards celebrating festivals in a traditional manner,” he said.
“The noise generated from a DJ system is similar to the noise of an ‘earthquake’. The chief minister also condemned the alleged assault on activist Vidyanand Bapat. “There can be different points of view, and people can be on either side, but violence is not right. Kumar has directed mandals to restrict their sound systems to four bass and four top speakers. Our enforcement is completely suo motu, based on intelligence inputs, police patrolling and field information.
“Our experience is that wherever discussions have been held, 90 to 95 per cent of people agree. Therefore, this has to happen through discussion and, once that is done, a policy can be framed and an order issued,” he said.
I have spoken with the Pune police commissioner, Amitesh Kumar, who informed me that a consensus has been reached on issues that cause distress to the people during the festival, like the use of DJs during the festival,” Fadnavis said. Everyone should put forward their views,” he said. However, police officials said some mandals appeared reluctant to comply and were preparing for celebrations on a larger scale. Kumar said, “We are not waiting for complaints from citizens to take action. Our teams are proactively monitoring locations across the city and intervening wherever sound systems are found to be unauthorised or operating in violation of prescribed norms,” he said.
