Sarhad NGO suggests noble use of discarded Loudspeakers

Pune, Apr 29: In a noble concept, the city-based NGO Sarhad has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealing to donate all the loudspeakers taken off mosques and other religious places recently for enabling ‘distance education’ in far-flung schools and junior colleges in the Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh, or other border states. In his letter, Sanjay Nahar, founder-president of Sharad, said that ongoing mission in the country to remove loudspeakers from religious shrines that causes sound pollution is a commendable initiative taken by the Centre as well as state government that will create peaceful relationships. As Sarhad has strong grassroots connections with villages in border regions of India, the PM should consider the request, he said. Elaborating further, Nahar said that Sharad has started initiative of “Ghar ghar schools, Har ghar school ” in Kashmir. Many new schools are planned in such remote villages and Joginder Singh, who lost his 15 family members while defending against terrorists’ attack in Doda district of Jammu in 1999, is coordinating with the mission, he informed. He said that Sarhad has offered to distribute loudspeakers collected nationwide to such villages and solve everyday problems of villages. These could also be deployed for certain other common initiatives like relaying the national anthem daily, morning prayers, pledges or conduct competitions on loudspeakers so all can take part irrespective of the long and tiresome distances involved, he suggested. Besides, if a particular teacher is on leave or absent, the students can be ‘linked’ to some other nearby schools to relay the same period to ensure they don’t miss out on the day’s course education or lag in the syllabus, and relay common instructions during exams simultaneously, saving time and efforts, said Vaibhav Wagh, president of Vande Mataram Sanghatana. This can be repeated in remote or border areas of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and other Northeastern frontier states, Nahar added. (UNI)