Noida: With the onset of festivals — Navratri and Ramlila — and the wedding months, loud celebrations with DJ music have returned. Residents, who are passing “sleepless nights” and getting headaches, claim “daily assault” till 2-3am.“It’s high time a unified rule is enforced and the DJ vehicles playing past 10pm were impounded,” Akshay Kapoor from Noida said, adding that different sectors are facing these problems, which remain “unaddressed”. A senior police officer said that the noise from the DJs must be under 75 decibels. “We will act after getting complaints about it. All the places, including banquet halls, have already been asked to stop music after 10pm,” the officer said.Thundering music, leading to the vibration of the glass doors and windows, crosses the permissible sound/noise limits — 55 dB(A) during the day (from 6am to 10pm) and 45 dB(A) at night (from 10pm to 6am) — in residential areas. Even areas with hospitals are not spared, where a 100-metre radius around hospitals is classified as a silence zone as per Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board (UPPCB).The sound limits — set by UPPCB — in these sectors should never cross the levels of ambient sound like that of a standard conversation between two people standing at most three feet apart. However, residents say that the heavy bass sound from DJ sets and loud firecrackers that go well past the prescribed limits have kept them awake hours past their bedtime. The elderly with health conditions and children remain the most vulnerable in such situations.While Harish Singh claims hospitals are not spared as the situation is the same near Fortis Noida Sector 62, Som Ranjan from Ghazipur, UP border had similar complaints. “They can’t even think about common people’s inconvenience. Max Hospital, Yashoda Hospital, and many hospitals are nearby, still, no action on them. Police are stationed all night, but there’s no action,” said Ranjan.Residents cite lack of civic sense among people as the main reason behind this growing issue. In 2005, Supreme Court ruled that noise can adversely affect the right to life, and that states must make provisions to confiscate loudspeakers and amplifiers that create noise beyond the permissible limit. Anyone can file a complaint about noise pollution, and authorities can take legal action against violators.But the ground reality tells a different story, as enforcement of rules is found negligible. People take to social media to vent their angst. Anushka Garg posted on X – “It’s past 2 am in Noida, and blaring procession music is making bedroom windows vibrate. This has been going on for days till 4 am. What happened to the 10 pm loudspeaker restrictions? Why should an entire neighbourhood lose sleep? Where’s the civic sense?”Another resident from Ghaziabad, G Gupta, posted, “Yehi nahi ruk sakta…Hamare Shalimar Garden mein hamesa yeh sab chalta rahta hai. (It doesn’t stop… all this goes on all the time in our Shalimar Garden).”Amit Chauhan said that Noida Expressway has notoriously high-bass DJ processions, almost about to shatter car windows and the police are mute spectators. “It’s happening across and from multiple sources together, making it worse,” he said.A similar complaint was echoed by Ranjan Kumar Singh, a resident on Noida Expressway. “We in sector 92 have been very badly affected by this. You get up in the middle of the night with windows vibrating and DJ blaring,” said Singh.Some call it the discriminatory identity of Indian mentality, while others blame poor law enforcement as the primary cause of this chaos and ruckus, while the lack of civic sense comes second. “Rules, restrictions, regulations, ban through official BNNS 163 imposed in Noida, but initiative by law enforcement agency is lacking,” said Vinod Kumar, a resident of Noida.Tagging Noida police and CEO Noida Authority, Tarun Goyal, a resident, stated that this is a real problem faced by people, especially the elderly and children. “Why is no action taken against the nuisance? Loud DJ music should be banned near residential areas. It affects everyone badly. I don’t know why the administration doesn’t take action on such activities,” said Goyal.While Abhishek Dutta faced the loud music while travelling for an extremely early morning shift, he stated, “My car’s window panes were vibrating like somebody is banging them from outside.”Another resident from Noida posted, “Itni jor jor se DJ baja rhay hain…lagta hai heart fail na ho jaye (They are playing the DJ so loudly… it feels like my heart might fail).”Pratap from Greater Noida claimed children are facing sleepless nights. “In Greater Noida, our kids wake up at midnight or early morning due to loud DJ sound from these processions. Our glass windows vibrate violently. Are there any rules and regulations to stop them?” he questioned as he tagged Noida police, UP police, CM office and DM GB Nagar on the matter.The problem isn’t restricted to NCR districts. Residents from Delhi also complained about similar problems and posted their angst on social media like X. Gaurav Maheshwari from Vasant Kunj complained of no reprieve from Dial 112. “In Vasant Kunj, the DJ music was at least 500 metres away; still, it woke me up. I tried 112 many times, but it did not connect.”Nishant Singh, also from Delhi, posted on X. “Unbelievable, the entire country has descended into chaos. Driving in Delhi is a nightmare; no one stops at traffic signals, and if you stop, then they abuse and threaten you. Also, blaring procession music can make anyone deaf everywhere in Delhi.”Another resident from South-East Delhi echoed the sentiment. “God knows from where these drums and music blare all night till early morning. We are truly a nation without any law-and-order enforcement.”
