Hyderabad: A PIL has been moved before the Hyderabad High Court seeking to direct the state government and its authorities concerned to prevent and ban the use of sirens and hooters by the heads of the all government departments as well as the politicians and self-proclaimed VIPs in city and state.
City advocate Vineet Dhanda moved the PIL stating that he had read various news articles and had personally experienced that effects of noise pollution and traffic congestions in and around city, caused due to use of siren and hooters without there being any emergency situation.
He submitted that sirens are used only for emergency situation approved vehicles like Ambulance, Fire & Rescue Force vehicles and police officials while on duty to attend emergency situations and not for VIP traffic movement.
He said that though the Union of India ban the usage of beacons by government officials and politicians since May 1, 2017, the politicians and other self-proclaimed VIPs worked out ingenious ways to circumvent the Rules and some of VIPs to get the traffic green channel are widely using the sirens to beat the ban on beacons.
He told the court that the traffic police officers give way to such siren/hooter users in traffic signals as well as in traffic blocks by stopping the vehicles of common men.
He brought to the notice of the court that Deccan Chronicle on June 7, 2018, published a fact that Hyderabad noise levels are at an all-time high and Hyderabad stands third among cities with high sound pollution.
He submitted that the Supreme Court in Abhay Singh versus the state of Uttar Pradesh had issued guidelines to heads of departments of the Centre and all state governments with regard to the use of red lights atop vehicles with flash, but those guidelines are still being violated by the authorities.
