Police deals with noise complaints on Twitter: Govt to HC

The Maharashtra government today told the Bombay High Court that police has recently opened a Twitter account for the citizens to lodge complaints against noise pollution for swift action against them.
The Twitter accounts have been opened by the Mumbai and the Thane police, the government told a division bench, headed by Justice Abhay Oka.
The government counsel made the submission during hearing of a bunch of petitions by Thane resident Mahesh Bedekar, Awaz Foundation and others against the menace of the noise pollution in the metropolis.
The counsel also told the bench that in all 2,433 complaints of noise pollution had been lodged from January to March this year.

Police had acted on 2,388 complaints so far, he said.
On the basis of these complaints, 185 cases were registered against the offenders with the police using noise meters to measure the noise decibel in as many as 83 cases, the government pleader said.

The court was further informed that the authorities had found that there was no substance in 2006 other complaints.
To this, the court asked as to how such a large number of complaints could be false.
The government pleader responded that the authorities face practical difficulty as the volume of the noise comes down by the time police reaches the spot to act on complaints. Hence it cannot take action against the offenders.

The matter has been adjourned to the first week of May for further hearing.
The high court had earlier observed that the government had failed to enforce the rules against the noise pollution in the state and that violation of norms was more rampant during religious festivals.
The high court had also said that the government did not follow in letter and spirit the orders of the court in regard to the violation of noise pollution rules.