The initiative aims to promote the reduction of unnecessary vehicular honking and make the citizens more aware of the health hazards associated with it.
CII-YI today launched a campaign called "Horn Not OK Please" (HNOP), to promote the reduction of unnecessary vehicular honking and make the citizens more aware of the health hazards associated with it.
The mission is to create awareness in the public of the ill-effects of vehicle horns; make as many as possible areas "Horn Not OK Zones"; urge the citizens, corporates and housing communities to join hands and pledge to no unnecessary use of horns; and measure the noise levels in the city and monitor the results.
K T Rama Rao, Telangana minister for IT & panchayat raj, unveiled the HNOP logo and HNOP app. A commercial video was also launched to propagate the concept.
The Minister appreciated YI for taking up such an initiative, and extended full support from the Government of Telangana.
He spoke about the success stories of two other initiatives - Raahagiri Day and Car-Free Thursday - and expressed hope for a very successful HNOP campaign.
"Hyderabad is one of the best cities to live in, in terms of quality and standard of living, and in this context, an initiative like HNOP will certainly add a lot of value," he said.
KTR urged CII & YI to leverage the power of social media to popularize the HNOP campaign.
"It is the youth of the country, the Young Indians, who can make a difference by addressing many socio-environmental issues like vehicular noise pollution," he said.
Mahender Reddy, Telangana minister for transport, was also present during the HNOP Launch. In this address, Reddy, too, appreciated CII-YI for initiating such a campaign. He unveiled the HNOD logo (Horn Not OK Day), which will be observed on 12th January 2016, and also the Horn Not OK Zones (HNOZ) logo.
Vanitha Datla, Chairperson, CII Telangana, and Executive Director and CFO, Elico Ltd., in her address, emphasised the need to have cleaner and citizen-friendly roads, which were critical for the "Horn Not OK Please" campaign, and urged the Government to address the issue.
Datla also launched the YI Pledge website, and became the first person to pledge for HNOP.
Praveen Agarwal, Chair, YI's Hyderabad chapter, delivered the welcome remarks, and opined that there was a need to assess the negative impact of honking in the urban environment, which was becoming a major issue.
"Through the initiative of HNOP, we would like to have more number of 'No Honking' zones," he said.
The launch ended with a play by school children on the HNOP concept, organized by Taher Ali Baig and his team.