One year on, MLA urges people to make 'No Horn Day' part of their routine

Mangaluru: Fed up of hearing the constant honking of vehicles while commuting or stuck in traffic jams? Invariably most of us have resigned to the loud noise around us but few people decided to change things for better. One among them being city South MLA Vedayvas Kamath.

On December 10 last year, Kamath spearheaded the No Horn Day campaign in the city and motorists were urged to refrain from honking their horns on Wednesdays. The campaign was well-received by all sections of the society and several pledged their support to this initiative.

As the campaign completed a year on Tuesday, the MLA has thanked the people for supporting him in this initiative. However, he also said that though the campaign has received good response, people are yet to become fully aware of the consequences of noise pollution.

Kamath had also boosted the campaign in the city by meeting drivers of autorickshaws, taxis, buses and other vehicles and requested to cooperate by not honking in the city on Wednesday. Responding to the campaign, many bus owners had removed the shrill horns from their vehicles. MLA had created awareness through social media aswell.

“As most of the schools and colleges of the city are located near the main roads, students find it very difficult to concentrate in classrooms due to the continuous honking by motorists, therefore I had urged the people to observe at least one day in a week as No Horn Day,” Kamath said.

Vedayvas further added, “The city traffic police had made the stretch from Collector’s Gate- Hampankatta Road a no horn zone. It has not been implemented yet due to lack of public cooperation. It is not possible to take up a campaign without the cooperation of the people. Hence, people should voluntarily join the movement by making No Horn Day part of their routine.”

MLA D Vedavyas Kamath had earlier appealed online food delivery partners to reduce the use of plastic, which eveoked a good response on social media.

In a Facebook post, the MLA has appealed to delivery apps, including Swiggy, Zomato and Uber Eats, to reduce the use of plastic and help make Mangaluru a plastic waste-free city.