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The environment department has overturned a pollution control board order diluting Bengal’s examination-time mike ban, sparing lakhs of students set to write their tests over the next few weeks a licensed assault on their eardrums.
The decision to revert to the original order — it says loudspeakers cannot be used in open areas during examinations conducted by the state and central boards — came after Metro highlighted how the PCB had reduced the mike ban to a farce.
The PCB’s modified order had restricted the ban to residential areas and those with educational institutions, creating a grey area in a law that political parties had so far found hard to flout.
“All concerned are hereby informed not to issue any permission for use of microphone or loudspeakers in residential areas or where educational institutions are situated, before three days of the commencement of the secondary or higher secondary examination conducted by any board or council, and till such examinations are over,” the PCB had said.
Environment secretary R.P.S. Kahlon, who was apparently unaware of the PCB issuing such an order until Tuesday, signed the notification restoring the mike ban to all open areas across the state during the examination season.
“All authorities are further directed to strictly prohibit the use of microphone or loudspeakers in open areas three days prior to the secondary and higher secondary examination conducted by any board or council till completion of such examination,” says the notification EN/48-PS/T-IV-6/001/2007 (Pt-I dated 22.02.2012), endorsed by environment minister Sudarshan Ghosh Dastidar.
“We noticed the deviation in the board’s order from the (environment) department’s standing notification in this matter and accordingly modified it,” Kahlon said.
The PCB was mum on the reversal, chairman Binay Kanti Dutta refusing to say whether he had been consulted. “You have to ask the (environment) department why they have changed it,” he said.
The PCB had tweaked the original order on the ground that Calcutta High Court had mentioned “residential areas” while restricting the use of mikes during examinations.
Ironically, the move benefited the CPM, which went full blast at its Brigade rally last Sunday.
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