Barinder Saluja, Chandigarh ,Jan. 28 : Today for second consecutive year volunteers of State Cell of NSS and Yuvsatta organized a ‘No Honking Day’ in the city. The programme was supported by “Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited” as State Level Coordinator for UT Chandigarh for promotion of an ‘Oil & Gas Conservation Fortnight.” Around 500 NSS volunteers from six different Schools and five prominent Colleges of the city participated in the endeavour.
Explaining the initiative Bikram Rana, State Liasoning Officer of NSS shared that they all joined together to promote calm and peace on roads and pave way for a noise free environment. For many Chandigarhian’s who’re so used to noise of honking while driving on city roads, they found themselves today amidst hundreds of young boys and girls carrying banners, placard, pasting stickers on vehicles and distributing flyer’s with message of ‘No Honking’.
The programme started with a bicycle rally against ‘Honking’ from Parade Ground to Sukhna Lake. The young participants were from NSS units of Govt. Model Sr. Sec. School, Sector 23 A, 16, 10, GMGSSS-23, GMGSSS-18 and Govt. Sr. Sec. School, Sector 15. The rally was flagged-off by Ajoy Sharma, IAS, Special Secretary Finance and Director, Higher Education plus Amit Mehra, Sr. Regional Manager, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited, Bikram Rana, State Liaison Officer, NSS, Pramod Sharma, Coordinator, Yuvsatta were also present on the occasion.
Congratulating the organizers Ajoy Sharma said that saving our scarce resources is the need of the hour.also making aware the society about the strategies that explains the harmful effects of various kind of pollution, is quite important and in this direction this initiative is quite commendable.
Addressing the cyclists at Sukhna Lake while honouring best volunteers of the day Santosh Kumar, IFS, Conservator of Forests and Director, Department of Environment shared that the unnecessary honking on roads in the city not only causes noise pollution but also adds to increasing number of road-rage instances in the city.
Another important initiative during the day was an awareness drive at almost all important traffic light points of the city by NSS volunteers & students from PG Government College, Sector 11, Govt. College of Education sec 20, Dev Samaj College of Education sec. 36, Sri Guru Gobind Singh Khalsa College for Women & Govt. College of Arts. The NSS program officers of Dev Samaj College of Education sec. 36, Dr. Anita Nangia and Dr. Seema Sareen along with over 40 NSS volunteers put up hoardings, banners, posters and stickers carrying information about the campaign across the city, so that majority of the motorists abstain from honking in future.Students carried placards, passed out stickers and pamphlets, and chanted “Jeevan mai hai kitna shor, mat do horn par itna jor”. Students also informed those in vehicles to please not honk unnecessarily. Students enjoyed participating in the awareness campaign.
These students interacted with people driving on roads asking them to not honk unnecessarily and observe special silence while crossing intersections, Schools, Colleges, Hospitals and in the night. Not only did they manage to send a message but also created so much joy. Huge smiles were every where from the traffic police, auto rickshaw drivers, and many others. It was much quieter today at Kisan Bhawan. Many of those that stopped also did not honk.