TIMES CITYTHE TIMES OF INDIA, AHMEDABAD | SATURDAY, JULY 9, 2016

CHIEF MINISTER’S SECURITY STAFF UNDERGO PSYCHOLOGICAL SCREENING | 3

FORENSIC EXPERT DR S L VAYA DECODES THEMINDS OF TWO SERIAL KILLERS | 4

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Afree society would naturally be an argumentative one, a society with diverse strands of

opinion that allows every sec-tion a voice. But what if the only voice that isn’t heard is the voice of silence? Have we reached a stage in this nation where we’ve lost the ability to respect an individual or a com-munity’s right to silence?

To say that we are a noisy society and think nothing of mounting a daily assault on our neighbours’ senses would be an understatement. Big cit-ies like Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai are now recording ambient sound levels that regularly breach the threshold of pain. Ceaseless honking by vehicles, the day-night rumble of construction activity, the cacophony of festivals, they all combine to make our sound-

scape a sleepless nightmare.When TOI began its cam-

paign to raise awareness on this issue, we’d cited a four-year-long nationwide study that concluded that the three metros along with Lucknow and Hyderabad were the nois-iest in India. Their residents, regardless of location, are showing symptoms of stress brought on by the relentless shrieking of automobiles.

We interviewed medical experts, activists and govern-ment officials to gauge the extent of the problem and un-derstand the solutions needed. One aspect that stood out was the total lack of public aware-ness about anti-noise laws, and more importantly, the require-ment to stop using horns in silence or residential zones.

The reasons for this are multiple. The car and two-

wheeler population has multi-plied, official agencies are un-able to devote resources to edu-cate motorists, and traffic po-lice has become an understa ff-ed workforce whose priority is to keep traffic moving rather th an discipline it. Even senior judges have questioned la ck of enforcement on the streets.

As we continued to write extensively on the subject, our readers responded in a manner that suggested that our cam-paign now needs an interven-tionist approach. In days to come, TOI as a change agent will reach out to taxi/auto driv-

ers, resident groups, educa-tional institutions, doctors, spiritual gurus, etc for a range of activities aimed at lowering our collective volume. The cli-max will be a ‘No Honking Day’ on August 22. We hope our readers will back this ambi-tious endeavour to create so-cial change.

As a leading activist in the

field, Sumaira Abdulali, says, “This is a much-needed cam-paign from The Times of In-dia. Noise pollution is a seri-ous health hazard afflicting all citizens in a country which is one of the noisiest in the world. Through aware-ness citizens can wake up authorities to take this issue seriously.”

Horn not OK: TOI will mark Aug 22 as No Honking Day

SEND US YOUR FEEDBACKMake your voice heard over the noise; write in to us.

TOIMumbai

TOIMumbai

Let’s build some opinion to make the authorities act: 09769934818

HERE’S WHY CARCOPHONY MUST BE MUTEDINDIA’S WORST

CPCB: Central Pollution Control Board; C: Commercial; I: Indus-trial These are 24-hour averages in 2014. The permissible limit in commercial zones is 65dB (during day time) and 55dB (at night). It is 75dB (day) and 70dB (night) in industrial zones

(Noise levels, as per CPCB Study 2011-2014)

ITO (Delhi-C)

MPCB (Sion Mumbai-C)

HAZRATGANJ (Lucknow-C)

PUNJGATTA (Hyderabad-C)

GUINDY (Tamil Nadu-I)

74

70

69

77

75

(Value in decibels)

70

40

75

65

55

50

Day time Night time

Permissible noise limit in dB

Industrial area

Commercial area

Residential area

#Silence zone

Day time | From 6am to 10pm

Night time |10pm to 6am

# Silence zone is an area not less than 100 metres around hospitals, educational institutions, courts where sound levels must be kept low

dB denotes time weighted average of sound level in decibels

45

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Rating | 4.6/5

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HOW TO MEASURE SOUND WITH APPS

Under Noise Pollution Rules, framed as part of the Environment Protection Act, penalties and

punishment for creating a disturbance with loudspeakers, sound amplifiers, vehicle horns or firecrackers are stringent. A fine of up to `1 lakh can be imposed and the offence is non-bailable; a term of imprisonment of up to five years is applicable. Of course, convictions and penalties are rare

WHAT THE LAW SAYS

A TOI CAMPAIGN

55

Gandhinagar: The Gujarat home de-partment has decided to tie up with Indi-an Institute of Technology, Gandhina-gar (IIT-Gn) to beat traffic problems andreduce the number of accidents by usingtechnology.

Th government of Gujarat will usecomputer modelling for realistic repre-sentation of traffic dynamics and routechoices. An intelligent traffic manage-ment system will also be adopted. Foursenior IPS officers will put on special du-ty at the state level to execute these re-forms in all cities.

The home department has started aState Traffic Unit, which will to improvetraffic management services.

The home department, after in-depthdeliberations, identified two major pro-blems areas. The first is congestion du-ring peak traffic hours in urban areaslike Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, Raj-kot and other cities. The second is the ri-sing number of fatalities on state and na-

tional highways. Road engineering solu-tions were suggested, but no means of ve-rifying the effectiveness of these roadimprovements for the identified acci-dent black spots has been implemented.

A senior home department officialsaid: “We are adopting computer model-ling for realistic representation of dyna-mics and route choice to address peakhour congestion in cities. Ahmedabadwill be divided in to the regions and desc-ribe traffic flows in mathematical andphysical terms. It will be studied by timeblocks. By dynamically dividing the ci-ty’s road network this way, computer mo-

dels of traffic can be simplified to the po-int that real time management of trafficin the entire city will become possible.”

“At present, CCTV footage is data-mi-ned only for traffic enforcement and so-me post-incident analysis. The footagewill be used to create computer modelsbased on vehicle count, mean vehiclespeed, bumper to bumper distance etc.,This can form the basis for creating app-ropriate algorithms for the IntelligentTraffic Management System and basedon built-in parameters for critical densi-ty be able to predict traffic congestionand alerts stakeholders to mitigate it,”added the source.

A source further said: “To minimizethe number of accidents on the highwayEmpircal Bayes (EB) methods will beused to analyse before and after crash da-ta in a systematic manner. It will beginwith determining unique safety perfor-mance functions (SPF) for identified ro-adway segment using various statisticalmodelling software packages. Based onthe number of fatalities in a specified ti-me-frame, road segments/points areidentified as black spots. Road enginee-ring issues at these places are reviewedusing theoretical principles. Safety au-dit will be done for all roads and measu-res will be taken accordingly. A team offour IPS officers and other staff will beassigned shortly.”

IIT-Gn to help get traffic out of jam4 IPS Officers To OverseeExecution Of Intelligent

Traffic ManagementSystem Across State

Kapil.Dave@timesgroup.com

Ahmedabad: While gran-ting Patidar Anamat Ando-lan Samiti (PAAS) leaderHardik Patel bail Gujarathigh court imposed such con-ditions that mean he will ha-ve to stay at one location for asix-month ‘exile’.

While granting bail to Pa-tel furnishing a bond of Rs50,000 and two sureties of Rs25,000 each, Justice A J Desaiasked Hardik to give a freshundertaking that he would li-ve outside Gujarat for thenext six months. This is onthe lines of what Hardik pro-mised during the hearing ofhis bail applications, that hewould leave the state for sixmonths if granted bail.

The HC asked Hardik tofurnish a temporary addresswhere he would live for thesesix months. He is not allowedto change the address witho-ut permission from the court.He will also have to, withoutfail, mark his presence atthe nearest police sta-tion on Mondays.

The high co-urt asked Guja-rat police to in-timate the poli-ce station inwhose jurisdic-tion Hardik willstay about the ca-se. Gujarat policewas asked to ensu-re that Hardik reaches thisaddress safely. All this is to becompleted within two days ofhis release, which is possibleonly after the HC decides on

his bail application for the of-fence registered at Visnagarpolice station.

After six months, Hardikhas been asked to mark his

presence before Ah-medabad and Suratpolice on every Mon-day and Thursday.

He will also haveto surrender

his passport.As the

state go-vernment

expressedapprehen-sions aboutHardik being

involved in a violent agita-tion again, the high court as-ked the trial courts to issue awarrant against him if hebreaches his bail conditions.

The HC rejected the go-vernment’s argument aboutthe possibility of him influ-encing witnesses and saidthat most witnesses, andeven the complainants, werepolice officials. Therefore,there was no question of himinfluencing witnesses.

A Patidar leader and co-accused in this case, DineshBambhania, said: “Hardik islikely to stay in Delhi. We ha-ve a Patidar Navnirman Sena(PNS) office there, so he couldrally other communities forthe cause of reservation.”

Other Patidar leaders —Bambhania, Chirag Pateland Ketan Patel —were gran-ted bail in this case after thestate government told the co-urt that it had no issue withthem being free.

HC grants Hardik conditional bailWill Have ToStay OutsideGujarat ForSix Months

Ahmedabad:Gujarat high court was of the opinion that HardikPatel was not the only person interested in the agitation. Therewere several Patidars interested in reservation, and it is not fairthat Hardik alone should be held liable for other people’s faults.The court also said that when other Patidar leaders have beengranted bail, why should Hardik alone remain in jail. “SeveralPatidars were interested in reservation and when innocentpersons have suffered due to the conduct of the police which isprima facie accepted by the coordinate bench while dealing awrit petition filed by one of such residents. Therefore, in myopinion, the applicant (Hardik) alone cannot be kept behind barssince the other members of PAAS have been enlarged on bail bythis court by imposing appropriate terms and conditions,” theorder reads. TNN

HC: Why should Hardik alone be in jail?

Ahmedabad: While gran-ting bail to Hardik Patel,Gujarat high court obser-ved that he had repeatedlyspoke of maintaining peaceand carrying forward theagitation for OBC quota forPatidars in a peaceful man-ner.

After scrutiny of volu-minous material – telepho-ne conversations, literatu-re circulated by Patidar lea-ders and their speeches —Justice A J Desai took noti-ce of pamphlets circulatedfor the August 25, 2015 rallyat the GMDC ground,which police considers tobe the root cause of the pro-blem. The judge said, “Itwas stated (in the pamph-lets) that all persons shallmaintain a peaceful at-mosphere at the rally andall should join the rally in apeaceful manner. Everybo-dy was requested to restra-in themselves so that no un-toward incident took placesince women, children andelderly persons were invi-ted to attend the rally.”

The judge further said,“I have gone through thetranscript of his interviewwhere in he stated that tho-ugh the police personnel at-tacked innocent people, theagitation would proceed ina peaceful manner.”

The court also said thatHardik’s threat of plantinga bomb in the assembly sug-gested that the bomb was“with regard to the bomb ofvotes”.

He alwaysspoke of apeaceful

agitation: HC

Ahmedabad:Amid the cele-bratory mood following Har-dik Patel securing bail fromthe Gujarat High Court, hisorganization Patidar Ana-mat Andolan Samiti (PAAS)started mulling over theirfuture strategy. This inclu-des pressing their agitationin the national capital, whe-re the Patidar quota leader islikely to stay for the periodof his ‘exile’ from Gujarat.

As news of Hardik’s bailemerged, members of thePatidar community startedcelebrating at various pla-ces across the state. In the ci-ty, Patidars celebrated in Ni-kol, Vastral, Naroda andGhatlodia areas by lightingfirecrackers on roads.

Bharat Patel, Hardik’sfather said that Hardik fo-ught for the community so

Patidars repaid him by sup-porting him in his toughesttime.

“He has spent ninemonths in jail and now hewill have to remain in exilefor six months. Like those ni-

Patel said he has hopethat Hardik will also get bailin the Visnagar rioting case,in which the order is likely tocome by July 11.

Dinesh Bambhania, aPAAS leader and a close aideof Hardik Patel, said thattheir movement will conti-nue under the guidance ofthe 23-year-old leader.

“It will become easy forus to run the movement asHardik has got bail in the se-dition case and he will alsoget bail in the rioting case.We will first hold a meetingof PAAS conveners withHardik and will then decideour future strategy,” he said.

“As Hardik was in touchwith Jat, Gurjar and Kurmileaders during the Patidaragitation, we will take themovement further at the na-tional level in the coming da-ys,” he added.

ne months passed, this tooshall pass. Hardik never tho-ught of his personal gain butalways fought for others, sowherever he lives, he will besupported by the people,”Patel said.

‘We will take movement to Delhi’

Ahmedabad: In the run-up to the Vibrant Gujarat Glo-bal Summit scheduled to be held in January, 2017, the sta-te government has decided to hold a two-day summit ex-clusively for startups. This will be among several eventswhich will be conducted as a precursor to the VGS 2017.The Vibrant Gujarat Startup Summit will be held on Oc-tober 21-22 at Mahatma Mandir in Gandhinagar.

In this event the Gujarat government, which has of-fered many incentives to promote startups in the state,aims to set up a robust ecosystem for startups by focu-sing on entrepreneurs, innovation and technology.

Arvind Agarwal, additional chief secretary, indu-stries and mines department, said: “We want to attractstartup companies in manufacturing, technology andother sectors from within the state and other parts ofthe nation. The government will also hold road shows invarious cities of the state as well as in Mumbai, Benga-luru, Hyderabad and New Delhi to popularize theevent.”

The state government hopes to attract 3,500 delega-tes to attend the more than 20 sessions revolving aroundstartups. “The two-day event will focus on developing astartup ecosystem to compete with the best in the worldand create a lasting network of relationships among allthe stakeholders,” added Sunil Parekh, a core commit-tee member, VG Startup Summit 2016. TNN

Vibrant startup summitto be held in October

Ahmedabad: Syndicate mee-ting of Gujarat University tur-ned stormy on Friday whenmembers of Akhil Bharitya Vid-harti Parishad created a ruckusdemanding that the universityshould roll back the fee increaseannounced in commerce cour-ses.

The university had recentlyhiked fees for self-financed com-merce colleges and for courseslike Bachelor of Business Admi-nistration, and Bachelor of Com-puter Application. On Fridaywhen the syndicate membersgathered at GU’s EMRC hall todiscuss various proposals,ABVP leaders forced their way inand stopped the members fromtaking up any proposal. ABVP le-aders demanded that the fee hike

should be rolled back. They shou-ted slogans and staged a dharnain the hall.

GU’s vice chancellor, MN Pa-tel, said: “We have formed athree-member committee of syn-dicate members to hear whatABVP students leaders have tosay and then submit their re-port.”

As soon as reports of disrup-tion of syndicate meeting spre-ad, NSUI leaders rushed to theEMRC hall and demanded thatstudents should be allowed to usethe convention centre of the uni-versity. NSUI members deman-ded that colleges officials andstudents should be allowed tohost their events in the conven-tion centre and that too at a nomi-nal fee. The syndicate meetingresumed after ABVP and NSUImembers left.

Fee hike disrupts GUsyndicate meeting

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Hardik Patel being produced at the sessions court in Ahmedabad

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Members of the Patidar community celebrating the HC order

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

The high

court order granting bail to Hardik has strengthened the democratic process. The Congress demanded bail for all Patidar leaders who were jailed only because of the state government’s whims. The Gujarat government must withdraw all cases against Patidar leaders.”Bharatsinh Solanki | State Congress president

In the court, the government pleader did not oppose the bail plea. That is why Hardik could get bail. He has got bail in two sedition cases. The hearing on the Visnagar case is scheduled for Monday. Nitin Patel | Govt spokesperson

Hardik got bail only because of the state government’s positive approach. The government is reaching out to all communities. Vijay Rupani | State BJP president

IWe have got the desired result in just ten days after we started negotiations with the state government. Hardik was booked by the government. He got bail because the public prosecutor did not oppose it.

Lalji Patel | Sardar Patel Group convener

Govt claim versus court orderEven as BJP ministers claimed that the government’s positive approach expedited bail for Hardik, the court order indicated otherwise:

“...Mitesh Amin, the learned Public Prosecutor has vehemently opposed these applications and submitted that since the applicant (Hardik) is facing serious charge.. for which the punishment provided is up to life imprisonment, the court would be slow to release an accused on bail during the pendency of the trial.”

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