Bhopal: Senior IAS officer Shailbala Martin has raised concerns about the public address systems at temples, leading to a heated debate. The officer from the 2009 batch, who is the Additional Secretary in the General Administration Department, expressed these concerns following the death of a 13-year-old boy during the immersion of a Durga idol in Bhopal. The boy suddenly collapsed and died while dancing to DJ music on Friday.
Chandrashekhar Tiwari, the head of the right-wing organization ‘Sanskriti Bachao Manch,’ announced plans to protest against the officer.
“You are drawing a false equivalence between temples and mosques. Mosques create a greater disturbance with their loud calls to prayer five times a day, starting at 5 AM, whereas temples only engage in a brief period of hymn chanting,” Tiwari stated.
The dispute started when a journalist on the social media platform X highlighted the unequal enforcement regarding the use of public address systems in mosques and DJs playing music outside these venues. In response to the journalist’s tweet, the IAS officer remarked that the noise pollution from temple public address systems is frequently ignored.
She further claimed that numerous processions with loud DJ music often traverse the VIP Char Imli area in Bhopal, where the Bhopal Police Commissioner, along with several ministers and officers, resides.
