NGO readies PIL on menace of hooters

REACTING TO the HT Lucknow Live Campaign against the misuse of hooters and beacons, an NGO, Rakshak Sewa Sansthan, has decided to file a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) on the issue.

REACTING TO the HT Lucknow Live Campaign against the misuse of hooters and beacons, an NGO, Rakshak Sewa Sansthan, has decided to file a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) on the issue.

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A prominent city-based doctor, Dr RK Varmaa who also manages the NGO, wrote to HT Live saying that after the “thought provoking” campaign taken up by HT Live he has decided to move court to check this unconstitutional practice.

“I would create awareness on the issue in every possible way. We have formed a club comprising of some forward-looking individuals who want the system to improve. Everybody is unanimous that the hooters should be hooted out,” the doctor says.

Saying that the blatant use of hooters and beacons was “undemocratic and dictatorial” Dr Varmaa, who also takes out a newspaper, said that besides taking up the issue in his newspaper he would also do his bit in improving the pathetic state of affairs on the road.

“Why is it that a beaconed car that ‘hoots’ everyone away from the road mostly gets priority over a patient struggling to reach a hospital? Why is it that a doctor going to attend to an emergency often is allowed to pass through only after the VIP fleet has been cleared? Old people, children, women all have to suffer at the hands of these so called VIPs who trample on people’s rights on the roads with impunity,” Dr Varmaa said. The doctor says that everyday commoners are humiliated by the VIPs on the road and has quoted several examples to substantiate his point.

“What’s worse the VIP passengers inside the red and blue beacon vehicles violate rules without a care in the world. They park their vehicles in the no parking zones, misbehave with commoners jump traffic signals and much more.

All this because they have a hooter and a beacon!” Dr Varmaa says.

The doctor added that hooters, besides adding to the already existing noise pollution also pose a threat to the aged. “An ailing aged person with let’s say a weak heart might easily get an attack simply because of the cacophony that hooters spread. Interestingly, the hooters continue to sound even when there is hardly any traffic on the road or at night when there is no need for such hooters,” Dr Varmaa added.

Questioning the policy of allotting beacon and allowing hooters to virtually everyone in authority, Dr Varmaa is seeking an immediate review of the same in his proposed PIL. Dr Varmaa says, “VIP menace on the roads at present reminds one of the Raj days.”