Partygoers! This may floor you oHERALDo BY GUILHERME ALMEIDA MARGAO, FEB 5 - This may not be music to many an ear! Wedding receptions on open dance floors and halls, besides late night parties in hotels around Salcete's countryside may now have to wind up early. For, if the latest memorandum issued by the Sub-divisional Magistrate, Margao Suresh Pilarnekar are any indications, the owners of dance floors will have to strictly adhere the directions of the Supreme Court on noise pollution (Regulation and Control) Rules. Presently, the SDM's directions have been communicated to the incharges of police stations at Colva, Cuncolim, Margao and Maina-Curtorim, besides Verna with a direction to issue "written" instructions to the owners of dance floors, wedding halls and the hotels to abide by the Supreme Court directions.
The police are required to communicate these instructions to the dance floor and hotel owners as early as possible, but within seven days. What's more, directions have also gone to the Salcete's mamlatdar and the taluka BDO to furnish separate list of all the dance floors, wedding halls and hotels in their jurisdiction with details of the owners and the managing agencies within 7 days. Says SDM Pilarnekar: "Complaints are pouring from the public citing instances of violation of noise pollution Rules in Salcete. The nuisance cannot be allowed to continue in view of the Supreme Court guidelines". According to him, the Panjim Bench of the Bombay High Court had issued instructions to the authorities concerned to comply with the Supreme Court directives. The SDM's action, many say, would force many a dance floor owner to cut short timings of wedding parties. Says an owner of a prominent dance floor: "If one goes by the SDM's directions, wedding receptions will have to compulsorily wind up by 10 pm sharp". That the SDM means business was evident by the fact that his office has slapped notices on two dance floor owners at Raia and Arlem to show cause why action should not be initiated against them for playing loud music beyond permitted hours during the night, thereby disturbing peace and tranquility in the locality and dishonouring the Supreme Court's directions. Incidentally, the SDM had initially planned to crack a whip against late night music during the Christmas-New Year Season, but it came a cropper for want of police support, who expressed their inability to implement sound pollution rules for want of an executive magistrate at the police stations during night hours.