The Uttar Pradesh police on Thursday said that it has taken action against nearly 1.3 lakh loudspeakers at religious places across the state, while more than 13,000 such devices were donated to schools. A government spokesman said the state was setting an example before the rest of the country with such a step to curb noise pollution.
“As part of the drive by the state government, 72,509 loudspeakers were removed from various places of worship, while the volume of 56,558 loudspeakers was reduced to permissible levels,” he said. “More than 13,145 of these removed loudspeakers were donated to schools for their morning assemblies, while 1,583 speakers were handed over for the public address system in the area,” he said.
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The state's home department had on April 23 issued orders to remove loudspeakers from religious places. The directives were based on an order of the Allahabad High Court. The spokesman said the entire process was conducted peacefully by holding dialogues with spiritual leaders of various communities. During the drive, the spiritual leaders were made aware of the noise pollution through the use of loudspeakers, he said.
