JOIN USThe Karnataka State Pollution Control Board is holding weekly discussions with the traffic police and the transport department on how to penalise those causing vehicular noise pollution, the KSPCB chairman Vaman Acharya said on Monday.
Speaking at ‘Pachashudhikarana’, a seminar on how to handle waste, organised by the KSPCB and Akashvani, Bangalore, he said: “Noise pollution is the major cause of many ailments.
There are many sources of noise pollution – religious institutions, rallies, mass events using microphones and loudspeakers, vehicles and construction activities. But the worst is vehicular pollution.
“Weekly meetings are being held with the traffic police and transport department on ways to check this pollution.
Traffic policemen have been provided with noise meters to identify noise-making vehicles. We want the Union government to discard the use of phrases on vehicles to seek way.
Instead of ‘Horn Please’, people should use dippers while asking for direction.” Acharya said that in all international vehicles, the horn is time bound and stops working after being used 300 times.
“We want the same to be implemented here.”
He further said: “The KSPCB will also write to the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to stop drilling borewells and demolishing buildings during the night. Residents complain about noise pollution at night. We want the BBMP to stop such activities after 10 pm.”
HR Krishnamurthy, deputy director, Akashvani, Southern Zone, said that around 500 people die in India every day due to water contamination, most of them children.
“There is a need for water footprint, to know how much water has been wasted and used for every project. Most of the water is mixed with sewage and also pollutes the ground water sources.”
On the occasion, geologist T R Anantharamu spoke on soil pollution; environment journalist Nagesh Hegde on air pollution, and Akashvani station engineer Venkatesh Shekhar on e-waste.
The event will be aired on FM Rainbow from July 7 to 26, 2014 at 8 am, said Sumangala S Mummigatti, Transmission Executive, Science Producer, Akashvani.