Campaign in MMTS on 4th Jan

(Sign the petition on http://www.petitiononline.com/mmts4hyd/)

It was great to see the response to the online petition in the first two days. I hope the word spreads and we gather more signatures soon.

However, there was a development that I would like to share with all. On 3rd January, the Hitec City station was a total mess in the morning between 9am and 11am. There was a swarm of autos in the parking but there were no drivers. When asked, I came to know that they had all together left to tackle some conflict with the police leaving all of us stranded at the station. There were about 200 people at the parking who were slowly spreading out the stretch of the road. To add to that, the next train arrived adding a few more hundreds to the existing herd. Now it was a total mess. As expected the traffic also halted, taking away of any chance of alternative transport.

I tried gathering up people to have discussion and possibly come out with something. But people were hardly worried about all that. They were more worried about getting late to office. Quite natural, but I felt that was a time to think about the problem rather than the consequence. (I managed to talk to a few of them who were concerned though.)

However, that experience urged me and one of my colleagues to take another step in this effort. We felt we should take a direct campaign activity. We took out printouts containing an appeal to sign the petition and made small slips out of them. (will post a picture of one soon) I started from Secunderabad and the other guy started from Begumpet at a later time and we distributed these slips among the people.

This seemed like a bit more effective way of spreading the word, though a little extra effort is demanded. The result is also showing up in the number of signatures.

But we wished there were more people with us doing this so that we can reach out to many more. I hope some of you step forward and join us in this. You can shoot a mail to me or leave a comment in this or any posts on this blog.

Forward this as mail among your friends

To all IT professionals of Hyderabad,

Traveling has been a major problem for people living and working in Hyderabad. Every year around 2 lakh vehicles are added to the roads of Hyderabad. With the kind of roads and traffic system we have it is difficult to travel on roads, be it public or private transport.
The introduction of MMTS had come as a rescue for many of us. The time of journey had considerably reduced compared with the time taken to commute between the same places on road. But as we seem to think that the problem is solved there are some more problems that need to be solved.

The Issues:
· Less frequency of trains during peak hours.
· No basic facilities and amenities in most of the railway stations (toilets, drinking water etc.)
· Single ticket counters during peak hours.
· Road connectivity between stations and important destinations.
· No proper security measures

Between Kacheguda and Lingampally, from 7am to 9am and 5pm to 7pm there are only 2 trains. With this limited frequency during peak hours, its becoming increasingly difficult to travel even by MMTS due to over-crowding .

Most of the stations like Hitec City, do not have toilets and drinking water facilities though hundreds of us have to wait there for trains daily.

Even during peak hours the officials operate only one counter to issue tickets and that too at a snail's pace. Though there are more machines available at some stations, they are not put to use for unknown reasons.

The stations are not well connected to important destinations like Hitec City, Gachibowli etc where most of the IT professionals work. There are no proper bus services from the stations and we have to depend on the unreliable autos.

In spite of repeated representations, requests and complaints, the authorities seem to be least bothered about our problems.

What do we do?

Let us make our voice heard, sign the following petition and we will let them know that there are thousands of us who want a change in these situations.

http://www.petitiononline.com/mmts4hyd/petition.html

Let us all try that this New Year brings in with it better services and less problems.

Forward this mail to all your friends, especially IT professionals and let us all stand together bring about the change. When we reach a considerable number of signatures, we will approach the concerned authorities with our united opinion.

"Tum Chalo, tho Hindustaan Chale…."

Better MMTS for Hyderabad (Read First)

This is not an awareness campaign, but an action campaign towards a better MMTS service in Hyderabad, especially in the interest of IT professionals working in Hyderabad and traveling by MMTS.

We have quite a number of problems to face everyday at work, home and otherwise. Traffic and travel only add to these woes. People who travel by MMTS may not suffer from traffic problems but its not problem-free either.

The MMTS service is majorly used by IT professionals working in and around Hitec City and they constitute a large majority of passengers especially during peak hours. Though the number of passengers has been steadily and visibly increasing, nothing has been done to cater to the needs of the growing numbers.

There have been many dialogues, debates and negotiation about this, but hardly any action was taken. There have been many who have tried on our behalf, now its our turn to act to solve our own problem.

Everyone of us might have had this thought to do something about this and mostly hesitate to take the first step alone. Let us all together take this first step and move towards a solution.

When we reach a considerable number of signatures supporting this petition, we can use this as a representation of our united opinion and move the concerned authorities about this.

Let's make our voice heard; sign the petition, inform about it to your friends and colleagues and let us all make the change happen.

Link to petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/mmts4hyd/petition.html



This effort is being made by a few among all of us. If you want to volunteer for the cause, leave a comment with your details.