"I welcome the banning of horns and loudspeakers at night," Sudhir Vyas, a Delhi resident, said. The national love affair with loud noise reaches its apogee at the annual diwali festival in autumn. It is supposed to be the festival of light, but it is really a festival of noise. Everybody sets off a barrage of bangers and louder fireworks. In the cities, it sounds as if the place is under a military assault, and the aftermath leaves thick clouds of black smoke. The attachment to firecrackerscould be hardest to break. Anyone who has lived in India knows the country has almost no concept of noise pollution. If your neighbours are having a party, you can forget sleeping: the music will be deafening late into the night.
So it will come as a relief to many in India that the Supreme Court has stepped in and banned loud music, firecrackers and car horns at night Firecrackers are a great favourite in India. While some observers have expressed concern about corruption, Mr Karzai said he was more worried about drug money being used to fuel terrorism.. The next challenge for the government is the disbanding of illegal armed groups across the country.The shadow of the country's opium production also hangs over the election. A total of 216 candidates have been barred from standing because of their links to armed groups.
But Mr Karzai said that, despite the gun culture and pervasive warlordism in the country, 60,000 weapons had been handed in during the disarmament process that ended last week. The Taliban claimed responsibility for shooting down an American helicopter in the east of the country last month.It is against this background that the parliamentary and provincial elections are scheduled to take place in September. There definitely is help coming to them from somewhere," Mr Karzai said.The US-backed President, who was democratically elected in November 2004 nearly three years after being appointed interim leader, rarely ventures outside Kabul.The country is virtually cut in two, with the northern provinces relatively quiet while conflict continues in the south, where the US-led coalition is on the trail of Osama bin Laden and the Taliban leader Mullah Omar. The upsurge in attacks in the Pashtun south has come despite the presence of 70,000 Pakistani troops along the border. "We do see that they would not be able to carry out their attacks, they would not be able to have explosives or bombs or other material if somebody didn't help them.
