India, July 23 -- For a fifth day in a row, boom box-laden trucks blared deafening music along city roads, besides causing traffic jams and gridlocking key junctions on Tuesday. Even as Kanwariyas sat atop music systems on trucks in the middle of main carriageways of roads, blaring music-ignoring lanes earmarked for them-police were helpless to take action.

"I have started dreading this time of the year. The noise is harrowing, and I have complained to the police about it so many times, but they don't do anything. Instead, they tell me that it's only a matter of a few days. The sound on the boom box can be heard in my house at even 1am, but no one stops them," said Rachna Arora, 61, a resident of Rajouri Garden.

A police officer, on the...