Srinagar, the second-largest populated district in Jammu and Kashmir with a headcount of more than 1.5 million, has no ‘noise measuring devices’ to assess sound levels.
It has come to fore, after the Srinagar administration’s District Environmental Plan 2021 went public and has proposed the Model Action Plan for seven thematic areas including “Noise Pollution Management Plan.”
The Srinagar district administration, as well as the Pollution Control Board, the prime body to deal with the pollution assessment and control owns no such device which can measure the noise, the plan has revealed.
Despite lack of the required devices, the authorities in the proposed action plan have mentioned that they still had the capability to conduct noise level monitoring but did not elaborate what tools it had used.
It was also revealed that the administration has “occasionally” made an implementation of ambient noise standards in residential and silent zones and has carried “noise monitoring study” in the district.
“Partial installation of Signboards in towns and cities in silent zones has been carried out,” the action plan reads.
The authorities further reported that they did not maintain the inventory of the number of complaints received and redressed on noise pollution in the last one year.