Out of 2,400 temples, only 24 have permission to use loudspeakers: Police

The Mumbai police on Wednesday said among the 2400odd temples only 24 have obtained permission to use loudspeakers while 950 out of the 1140 mosques have received the approval from authorities to use the deviceAs per statistics available with the Mumbai police only 1 per cent of the temples in the metropolis have obtained permission to use loudspeakers in their premises an official saidHowever figures on use of the device by other holy places like churches gurdwaras Buddha viharas and synagogues are still being collected by the police and managements of these places of worship will be asked to take permission for installing loudspeakers he saidStatistics related to permissions for using loudspeakers was discussed at a meeting attended by community leaders trustees and representatives of religious and spiritual places in the financial capital the official saidThe meeting was held at the Mumbai police commissioners office on Wednesday evening and came in the backdrop of MNS president Raj Thackeray demanding removal of loudspeakers from mosquesPolice commissioner Sanjay Pandey and joint police commissioner Law and Order Vishwas Nangre Patil among others attended the meeting he saidAfter the loudspeaker row erupted the police asked managements of shrines to take permission to use the device the official saidThese places of worship have been asked to follow the Supreme Court guidelines about noise pollution and use loudspeakers within the prescribed decibel limits between 6 am and 10 pmAfter Raj Thackerays ultimatum last month to the Maharashtra government to take down loudspeakers from mosques by May 4 many representatives of mosques approached the Mumbai Police and sought permission to play loudspeakersLaw is equal for all and we have asked religious places to obtain permission to play loudspeakers the official saidPermission to use loudspeakers will be given to shrines initially for a period of one month with certain conditions and the approval will be renewed from time to time and the entire process will be hasslefree he saidThe police were trying to create awareness among representatives of religious places so that there is peace in the city and noise pollution is also kept under control the official saidChintamani Nevate a trustee of Khardanda Temple in suburban Mumbai who attended the meeting said politicians should not play with the religious sentiments of peoplePoliticians should not use such issues for elections he saidThe secretary of a Jain temple in Dadar said the decibel limit at religious places has been fixed at 50 and pointed that noise of mixers and grinders used in homes was higher than thatWe do not play loudspeakers at high volume at our temple but if somebody comes and threatens us over such things then who will take handle the situationor who will measure the decibels he askedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever