UP govt calls for peaceful festival celebrations amid loudspeaker curb

Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) [India], April 28 : The Uttar Pradesh government on Thursday appealed to the religious leaders for their support and cooperation to uninstall loudspeakers from religious places and organise the celebrations of upcoming festivals peacefully.
Additional Chief Secretary of Home Department, Awanish Kumar Awasthi said, "It has been requested to all the religious leaders to provide all possible cooperation in order to successfully organise all our festivals. Our district administration and police officials have talked to about 30,000 to 40,000 religious leaders. We have received support. This work is in continuous progress."
Awasthi said that the people and the religious leaders have been cooperative in removing the loudspeakers. This has given a good message to the society, he said, adding the department will ensure a balanced dialogue, in case of any difficulty in removing the loudspeakers.
"So far, the volume of 39,000 loudspeakers has been reduced in the entire state. Around 17,000 loudspeakers have been uninstalled from various religious places. In the first phase, the Chief Minister did video conferencing with senior officers, yesterday he talked to the Tehsil level officers, it was his instruction to talk to the Gurus of all religions by meeting them," added Awasthi.
The home department asked the police to remove the loudspeakers and those flouting the noise limit standards at religious places across the state. The order to remove loudspeakers from religious places in the state was issued on April 24. A compliance report from the districts in this regard has been sought by April 30.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray congratulated UP CM Yogi Adityanath for successfully conducting the drive to remove the loudspeakers from the religious places. While congratulating the Yogi government, he targetted the Maharashtra government and termed them "hedonists".
He wrote, "I wholeheartedly congratulate and stand grateful to the Yogi government for having removed the loudspeakers from religious places, especially the masjids. Unfortunately, in Maharashtra, we don't have any yogism, what we have are bhogis (hedonists). Here hoping and praying good sense prevails.
The Yogi government on Wednesday uninstalled a total of 10,923 loudspeakers from various religious sites in the state and lowered the volume of 35,221 loudspeakers as per the parameters till 4.00 pm.
The order to remove loudspeakers from religious places in the state was issued on April 24.
UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on April 21 directed that the loudspeakers at religious places should not play loud and the sound must be confined to the premises only. He also said that the microphones should not be installed and that no new loudspeakers would be allowed at religious places.