Karnataka Home Minister Araga Jnanendra informed the Legislative Assembly that the Muzrai and Endowment Department has withdrawn a circular issued to temples on the regulation of sound of bells.
When the subject was brought up by C.T. Ravi and Ravi Subramanya during zero hour, Mr. Jnanendra said the Police Department had not issued any circular on regulating noise caused by bells in temples. The circular issued by the Muzrai Department had been withdrawn, he said.
Earlier, Mr. Ravi and Mr. Subramanya raised the issue and said it was a tradition to use bells and conch shells in temples and houses during pooja for thousands of years. “Based on whose complaint are the police issuing notices to temples? Who is hatching a conspiracy to stop the sound of bells and conch shells,” Mr. Ravi asked the government.
The police had begun sending notices to temples following directions from the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board on violation of noise pollution norms under the Environment Protection Act 1986. It is said that a priest of Dodda Ganapathi and other temples in Basavanagudi in Bengaluru had received notices from the Basavanagudi police. In the notice, priests have been told not to exceed the prescribed decibel limits.
Earlier, police had sent similar notices to mosques over azaan (call for prayer). The notices to places of worship followed a direction from the Karnataka High Court on noise pollution.
