Deccan Chronicle and BIG FM on Wednesday launched their much-anticipated breakfast show, Namma Ooru Chennai, with famous actor and social activist Vivek participating in the opening session and exhorting the Chennaiites to strive to make “our beautiful city even better”. The show on popular 92.7BIG FM between 8 am and 10 am was a big hit with several listeners calling in to express appreciation at the effort to step up citizens’ awareness for civic issues, such as keeping Chennai litter-free and following traffic rules.
Mr Vivek, in his inimitable style, said people from Chennai conduct themselves impeccably when they go abroad “but the moment they step out of the airport here, they are back to their usual ways”.
A clean environment would be difficult to achieve unless the people voluntarily practice basic norms, said Vivek, who has been involved in a record-breaking green initiative, Green Globe, initiated by former President Abdul Kalam to plant one crore saplings in the state.
The show, Namma Ooru Chennai, will involve several celebrities talking over the coming days about the many ways of making Chennai better, besides featuring the citizens calling in with their complaints about shortcomings in civic amenities and providing them solutions. Efforts would be made to secure solutions through public-government collaboration in addressing the various problems.
The efforts taken and the positive results achieved would also be featured in these columns of Deccan Chronicle, in addition to being celebrated, along with melodious movie songs, on the breakfast show.
