Date:02/12/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/12/02/stories/2008120253200300.htm

Other States - Orissa

Sound pollution

Speakers have never been louder than this time along the Mahatma Gandhi Marg, the 1 km-road stretch connecting the Bhubaneswar Railway Station and State Assembly.

There seems to be no end to rallies and no restrictions on crowds. With a few months away from general and Assembly polls, the police administration is following an unwritten order of ‘no coercive action.’

Perceiving no threat from the police, demonstrators are resorting to noise as much as they could during the Assembly session. Impact has been visible. While television sets continue to remain switch-off in some houses, some families go on ‘undeclared’ vacation.

A top cop admits police could do nothing to lower the sound. As per the police, 120 decibel of sound is the permissible limit. However, the volume of sound goes beyond 1500 decibel along the Mahatma Gandhi Marg. The use of loud speakers never stops.

Here question arises who gives them the permission to play loudspeaker for 24 hours a day. When the question was pitched before the top police officer, he hardly had any answer. But poor marriage procession parties! The officer said five marriage parties had to cough up Rs.1000 each in a single night for violating the norm. One law is having two different applications!

All about corruption

It was a seminar on prevention of corruption. The high profile guests were speaking at large about the causes and effects of corruption with a snarl on their faces. They were speaking as if all except them were corrupt in this world. And they were watching corruption all around them like angels floating above on high clouds.

They also suggested remedies to root out corruption from our country. The audience was too meagre. Mostly the newsmen and the subordinates attached to the bosses attending the seminar. The million dollar question was how could these ‘non-corrupt’ persons decide anything about corruption if they had never ventured into it. At least they could have called up some corrupt persons as experts to delve into the reality of corrupt world.

(Satyasundar Barik and Sib Kumar Das)