Authorities sleep, residents wake up to pressure horns

Gurdeep Singh Mann

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, December 6

The early morning silence of Bathinda city is shattered these days by the ear-piercing pressure horns that are being unchecked. The Traffic Police and teh District Transport Office (DTO) miserably failed to curb the menace, which is on the rise without any check.

Trucks with heavy loads pass through the city roads by unnecessarily honking the unbearable pressure horns even when there is no immediate requirement of the same.

“I stopped a truck today morning that was passing through Model Town, Phase I, and was honking even without much traffic on the road at 7.10 am. The driver was hearing honking from the Dhobiana Road and was stopped by few morning walkers near on the Cantt Road, adjoining Model Town, Phase I, market,” said Gurdeep Singh, a resident of Model Town, Phase III. He pointed out that the daily walkers tried to enquire about the reason behind use of unnecessary horn but instead of showing any cooperation the driver entered into heated argument and fled past his truck.

Despite having heavily loaded material, the driver was alone and was driving the vehicle without the help of anyone else. He did not remove his hands away from the horn and continued up to the flyover on Bathinda-Mansa Road where a section of other residents dialed 100 in view of the nuisance created by the truck driver.

The policemen noted down the number but failed to nab him or issue any challan slip to the accused truck driver.

The Punjab government has banned all types of pressure horns under the noise pollution (regulation and control) rules but there is no check on the use of same.

Despite a set standard of the use of horns outside the hospitals, schools and other silence zones, there is no check on the use of pressure horns.  

In view of the onset of winter the horns used by the heavy vehicles, school buses and others is heard from quite a distance as no electric or electronic appliance like fan, cooler or others is not used which increases the intensity of the horns which is awfully noisy.

While DTO Latif Ahmed failed to respond, city traffic in charge, Baljeet Singh, said: “All the challans issued for the use of pressure horns are issued by me as no other junior persons including the constables have ever issued such a challan so far,” he said.