Less noise, more action.

A fair moved into the open ground 3 blocks from our apartment complex. Our understanding was that they'd leave in a fortnight. Not only did they stay, they played very loud music (on a loud speaker) all the way till 10:30pm.. FOR A MONTH.

People at home started to get irritable in the evenings because there was no room in the house that the noise did not pervade. Everyone being Indian here also meant there was also a lot of whining, complaining & negativity about the loud music everyday (with no initiative being taken about solving the problem). I knew I had to do something when my old father started to hum 'Sheila ki jawani' (one of the songs repeated 10 times a day on the fair ground loud-speaker) in a very out-of-tune manner.

10pm the next day I called the local police precinct and informed the officer (operator) that we were having a huge noise pollution problem because of a neighboring fair. He asked my name & I told him. I asked if they would keep it confidential & he said they would. He then asked me the address of the location where the sound was emanating from & I gave it to him. I was very polite all the way through & addressed him as 'sir'. Once he had all the details he'd asked, for he said he would inform a patrol officer about the problem. I thanked him and hung up. 20 minutes later they cut the music. It was that simple. The next day the music started up again but I didn't wait for it to be 10pm. I placed pretty much the same complaint, supplied pretty much the same information and got pretty much the same response. Once again - 20 minutes later they cut the music. The key word I used was "loud speaker" which apparently is grounds for immediate action.

My advice to those that suffer from noise pollution:
1. Call the local Police Control Room (justdial or the yellow pages will have this info).
2. Find out the phone number of your local police precinct (chowki) from the Police Control Room.
3. Call your local police precinct (chowki) and inform them of the problem.
5. Be sure you have the address of the 'problem location'. The police will not go by general directions and they are not authorised to act on their own.
6. If the problem persists, go to the police station in person & lodge a complaint. At least you'll have something to go by if you later have to invoke the RTI act.
7. Be polite to the police officers you talk to. They make it a point to ignore the rude.

And above all: Ask and ye shall receive!

I was extremely impressed at the speed with which the Ramwadi Police Station in Pune acted on my behest. Not even the local council in London (where I lived for some years) moved that quickly when called about noise issues!