With just a day left for municipal elections’ campaign to end, the district administration has tightened its noose around the defaulters violating the rules described under use of loudspeakers during the promotional activities by the State Election Commission.
Sadar SDO and Returning Officer (RO) for Mayor’s election, Anjali Yadav said that the three members’ team has been appointed who with a hand held mechanical device is constantly monitoring the decibel level (scale) and reporting the administration from different wards about the cases of violation of model code of conduct under this specific norm.
Recently, an FIR was lodged against 13 contestants who had violated the rules and whose decibel level was much more than the prescribed limits. According to the rules, the Bihar (Jharkhand) Control of the use and play of loud speaker Act 1955, no contestants during election campaigning are allowed to exceed the sound limit of loudspeaker more than 55 decibels inside residential pockets and more than 65 decibels at any commercial belt.
Under violation of rules for exceeding the sound limit, an FIR had been lodged against both ward councilor aspirants, including Mayoral and Deputy Mayoral candidates. Further details are being compiled with by Board Analyst Central laboratory, Jharkhand State Pollution Control Board.
Furthermore, on enquiring about the action taken by the district administration against the defaulters, Yadav said, “Candidates’ activities are on our radar. Besides just notifying the contestants, action will be taken against vehicle owners and loudspeaker owners. Also, vehicles on which campaigning is being done will be seized by the district administration team soon. We are compiling the data.” However, Yadav failed to cite the total number of cases registered in these three days under the specific guidelines of loudspeaker use and decibel level.
“Random samples collected are being cross-examined; soon the names of a few more violators will be disclosed,” she added.
The SDO further added that the expert team has been instructed to regularly monitor those areas from where maximum cases of violation of sound were registered.