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Monday, April 7, 2008

No Honking Day!










Today, Mumbai is observing 'No Honking Day!' The city's police traffic department has decided to observe a 'No Honking Day' on the ocassion of World Health Day on April 7 as noise pollution has an impact on health.



The effort to create the awareness is commendable. Even bollywood stars of the likes of Amitabh Bachchan were roped in. It's also good to know that the police have taken action against many motorists since January this year for using pressure/musical/reverse horns, honking in silence zones around hospitals and courts and for unnecessary honking.



Although I like this step, I was not happy with the response. The news channels did say that the mumbai roads are peaceful from their usual mindless honking. But the response on ground zero was poor. As I travelled to my office, I could not find much difference in the honking habits of most vechicles. The irony was that a government truck, which was on another awareness mission of 'Clean-up!', was honking as if there's no tomorrow. Even an ambulance's siren would have been ashamed of the loud noise created by this truck. I really wonder what could have been the emergency of the truck driver. A culture needs to be developed especially for the people working in such initiatives, to respect other awareness campaigns. Only then can they expect other mumbaikars to heed to their awareness campaign.



Anyways, I am glad of all these initiatives, willing to contribute whatever little I can do.

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