mumbai a fine balance needs to be struck and the grievances of residents around the venue of a cultural festival cannot be simply brushed aside said the bombay high court on wednesday at the hearing of a pending plea against the kala ghoda arts festival a threemember committee appointed by the court after the festival early in february submitted a report with suggestions concerning the issue and stated that the question of shifting the festival out of the area may be debated before the court kala ghoda association advocate birendra saraf said before a division bench of justice v m kanade and justice revati mohitedere that shifting the arts festival elsewhere was not in the public interest it is a cultural festival in a culturallystarved city he said adding that the organizers had committed to the court that they would not hold live performances and use loudspeakers to respect the silence zone petitioners advocate chirag mody said the festival could be shifted to cross maidan the way the elephanta caves festival is not held at the caves he said the festival goes on for nine long days including two weekends and attracts large crowds especially in the evenings and at weekends he said locals and officegoers are inconvenienced and even the bylanes around the main venue of the festival are blocked the question is about security safety and crowd control he said at this the judges remarked that normally people in the city are very tolerant and gave the example of forever dugup roads people very quietly suffer it justice kanade said on the expressways digging work for flyovers goes on for years people are very tolerant they dont hold agitations we tolerate unless it becomes unbearable the court said that its anxiety was over encroachment of the roads and disruption of traffic on the pretext of the festival saraf said there had not been a single such instance in the past 16 years saraf said religious festivals likes the bandra fair ganeshotsav durga puja were tolerated each of these festivals create some inconvenience he said nobody touches a religious festival why target an arts festival the judges said there is a need to strike a fine balance between the grievances of the residents and those inconveniences which can be removed you just cannot brush it aside justice kanade said festival is important people are not this cannot be your attitude the judges said there had to be some way to decongest the area by considering alternatives as this festival may continue to grow over a period of time the matter will continue on thursday