53,942 unauthorised loudspeakers removed from religious places across Uttar Pradesh
Lucknow (PTI): Nearly 54,000 unauthorised loudspeakers were removed from religious places and the volume of over 60,000 was set to permissible limits across Uttar Pradesh following a government order, a senior police official said on Sunday.
A statewide drive undertaken to remove unauthorized loudspeakers from religious places and set the volume of others within permissible limits began on April 25.
Under this exercise, a total of 53,942 loudspeakers were removed and volume of 60,295 loudspeakers was set within permissible limits till Sunday morning, Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Prashant Kumar said.
The drive will continue in the coming days, confirmed a senior home department official. The ADGP said that the loudspeakers are being removed from all religious places without any discrimination.
Explaining further about the action, Kumar said, "The loudspeakers which are being removed are unauthorised."
Those loudspeakers which have been placed without taking due permission from the district administration or the ones which are placed in excess of the permitted numbers are categorised as unauthorised, he added.
He said, "Orders of the high court regarding loudspeakers are also being considered during the exercise."
As per the said 2017 order, the High court had asked the UP government if the loudspeakers at religious and public places were installed after taking permission in writing from authorities referring to the Noise Pollution (Regulation and Control) Rules, 2000.
The recent drive against loudspeakers followed after Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, during a review meeting, in April, said that people have the freedom to perform their religious practices according to their faith.
"Though microphones can be used, it should be ensured that the sound does not come out of any premises. People should not face any problem," he had said.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
