Sunday evening marks the fourth day in a row that the residents of Anjuna, Vagator, Chapora, Ozrant and Assagao including Badem came together to hold a candlelight march in protest against incessant loud music by clubs located along the coast. The protests, which began on the evening of Independence Day, were held as a show of strength by locals who were fed up with constant disturbance from the late-night parties, some of which began only at 4 am in the morning.
According to the organisers, the police refused to act on individual complaints and either pretended that there was no noise pollution or delayed action against the violations, which they could get away with since the complainants were usually few in number.
This time, however, the protesters -- hundreds of them carrying lighted candles -- were able to demonstrate in more ways than one that the sound pollution norms were indeed being violated right in front of their eyes and ears well beyond 10 pm. The candlelight protests were even held right outside the violating venues, indisputably demonstrating that the violations were indeed taking place, something the police could no longer ignore. As a result, the police booked at least three cases on August 16, including confiscating the equipment from one location and booking a DJ for violating sound pollution norms.
The police claims of having “successfully controlled the menace of loud music in Anjuna PS jurisdiction” however, sounds more shallow than sincere. For starters, according to the protesters, no sooner they dispersed the music resumed from some establishments at around 2 am in the morning and continued late into the night. Secondly, among the cases they have been registered, the cases are mainly registered against the DJ who is playing the music and whose equipment is being seized. Neither have the establishments who have played the music or their owners and promoters been booked or otherwise named as co-accused in the case allowing them to go scot-free.
Besides this, as the protesters have pointed out, many of the establishments that they have complained against for playing loud music are actually illegal establishments, including one they say was reported to the Bombay High Court at Goa as having been sealed. None of these are possible without the blessings of the local police station. The Bombay High Court at Goa was not wrong when it observed that the Police are “bent upon not taking action against the violators of the noise pollution rules framed by the Government itself”.
The situation is even worse today than it was ten years ago in 2012 when the residents of Anjuna had similarly risen up against loud music leading to a crackdown by the then north Goa superintendent of Police Vijai Singh, who only ended up being transferred the following year following political pressure to let the show go on.
At this juncture, Goans must rise in solidarity with the people of Anjuna to hold the police accountable for their misdeeds. Secondly, it is important that the police ensure that the real culprits are brought to book not through token measures of registering cases, but following the “action plan” that has been approved by the High Court on dealing with cases of sound violation including that of first issuing a warning and when that warning is not heeded, seizing equipment. Anything else will be just an eyewash and of no consequence to the violators.
