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Thursday, August 16, 2007

Noise pollution

Response to a comment from a reader (the reader didn't leave a trackback URL, so posting it here):
"WHy does one constrcut a house with the utmost details on the ventilation? Cos one wants to enjoy sitting in the Verandah and open the windows to let the fresh air in. After constructing a beautiful house in Bangalore taking huge amounts of loan, we are uinable to enjoy these little joys of life. The problem: our neighbor who runs not one but two machines that make some kind of printing balls( in a residential area!). We have tried to reason with him saying that we need our peace for atleast Sundays and if his livelihood depends on the Machine running, then he should do so between 10 and 5 pm. T othis the man takes huge offence and brags about the heft bribes he has paid to get his'licence'!
My spouse says that since we both work,come back at odd hours, have a little girl and our house is made of a lot of glass, we should not take "panga" with the neighbour and let his "factory" die a natural death( he is an alcoholic and often gets drunk and abuses everone around- so my spouse assumes that he is self destructive too!).
Everyday life is becoming touger with the volume from his factory/house increasing. what can we do?"

Well, the first step is to understand your rights. A bit of search on the net will throw up various cases of noise pollution dealt with by the courts around India. Hopefully, you have already read the bit about noise pollution in the post (Fight for your rights! - Sidenote 2) on which you posted the comment. I have tacked noise pollution earlier against a temple opposite my house and the details are given in that post.

In your case, I would say that the Pollution Control Board can help. You can have a look at this notification from the Supreme Court regarding noise pollution. Please also see the KSPCB Citizen's Charter and KSPCB Grievance Redressal mechanism.

Best of luck, and please keep me informed about what steps you take and what happens.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi,

How did the hearing go?

Hope it was not too intimidating.

Do keep us posted.

take care.
Naked Desserts