Indore (Madhya Pradesh): Amid the ongoing loudspeaker row in adjoining Maharashtra, a temple in Madhya Pradesh's Indore city has started playing the Hanuman Chalisa and 'Ramdhun' on loudspeakers five times a day - twice and three times respectively - while the local administration has urged different stakeholders to maintain peace and communal harmony.
A local organisation, Hindvi Swaraj, had called for playing the Hanuman Chalisa and Ramdhun (devotional song in praise of Lord Ram) five times a day on loudspeakers at Khedapati Hanuman temple located in the Chandrabhaga area.
Talking to PTI, Amit Pandey, the head of the organisation and a lawyer by profession, on Monday said, "The Hanuman Chalisa is being played on loudspeakers in this old temple at sunrise and sunset. Ramdhun is being played on loudspeakers in the temple three times during the day." Pandey said during the past three months, local lawyers, while citing the existing regulations, had given written complaints to various police stations in the city highlighting that loudspeakers were being played at high decibels at mosques, causing inconvenience to people, especially children and senior citizens.
The police or the district administration, however, did not take proper steps to address the issue, he claimed.
Pandey said, "We have identified 25 temples in the city where we are planning to play the Hanuman Chalisa and Ramdhun on loudspeakers five times a day." District Collector Manish Singh said maintaining peace remains the administration's top priority and called for talks among the parties concerned to resolve the issue.
"The issue of loudspeakers at religious places should be resolved by dialogue with each other and there should be no communal tension. Maintaining peace in the city is our prime responsibility," he said.
Talking about complaints related to high decibel loudspeakers atop mosques, the IAS officer said, "After we spoke to the managing committees of different mosques regarding these complaints, the volume of the loudspeakers installed there has been reduced." In Maharashtra, MNS chief Raj Thackeray has given an ultimatum to the state government to remove loudspeakers atop mosques by May 3.
