Loudspeaker rules after consulting stakeholders, hints Maharashtra home minister Dilip Walse Patil

Mumbai: Stakeholders would be consulted before Maharashtra issues fresh guidelines to regulate the use of loudspeakers, home minister Dilip Walse Patil has hinted. The state government was concerned about communal clashes in the state and would seek inputs from the Intelligence Bureau and the Research and Analysis Wing to check if there was a conspiracy, he said.

“My personal opinion is that we should get the opinion of all political parties and religious organisations on the issue and then take a decision. We are waiting for the recommendations of the DGP on the issue, following which we would meet the chief minister who would be taking the final call on the issue,” Walse Patil said in Nagpur.

DGP Rajnish Seth had a meeting of senior police officials on the issue on Tuesday. An officer present in the meeting said that there was a move to regulate the decibel level of loudspeakers used for religious or other purposes. Religious places may have to reapply for permission to use loudspeakers too. The decision to grant permission for use of loudspeakers will be taken by the police commissioner/superintendent. However, what the DGP’s report says on a Supreme Court order to ban use of loudspeakers between 10 pm to 6 am is not known. The morning Azaan happens before 6 am. Seth is expected to give his report on the issue in a couple of days.

Trouble began after BJP and MNS demanded a ban on loudspeakers in mosques and MNS threatened to counter them with Hanuman Chalisa from May 3, if the state government did not bow to its threat.

“Once the DGP gives us a report, we will take a call,” Walse Patil said. Police have been alerted to prevent communal incidents in the state, he said and hinted that BJP was trying to create trouble. “Attempts are being made to inflame tempers to divert the attention of the public from issues such as inflation, unemployment and border security,” Walse Patil said.