Instead of partying, Hyderabad techies perform traffic duties on New Year's Eve

HYDERABAD: While the rest of the city was out partying on New Year's Eve, several Hyderabadi techies volunteered for traffic duties and assisted traffic officers during the special drive against drunk driving.

Techies from the city were spotted assisting traffic regulation in a number of locations including Jubilee Hills, Gachibowli and Kondapur, which have a dense population of bars and pubs.

Srinivas Bellam, Vinay Vangla, Ramanjeet Singh and several other volunteers enrolled with the Society for Cyberabad Security Council that assisted the traffic police in regulating traffic from 10 pm to 4 am on the intervening night of December 31 and January 1. They have been doing this for the past five years.

Vinay Vangla, a social activist from Hyderabad said, "For the majority of them, ‘31st night’ means celebrations. But for some of us, it means keeping the drunk people off the roads to ensure the safety of other people. We are volunteers from the Society for Cyberabad Security Council which assists the Cyberabad traffic police on New Year's Eve every year. We have been doing this for the last five years.”

"Anyone can get drunk on booze on New Year's Eve but social work and helping others give us more joy and personal satisfaction than partying and celebrations," said Srinivas Bellam, another volunteer from the Society for Cyberabad Security Council.

"When we learn that there were no accidents the following day, it gives us great satisfaction because we too contributed to the evening's incident-free status," he adds.

Another social activist Ramanjeet Singh, who too has been volunteering for traffic duties for the past five years, stated, "We discovered from data that many accidents occurred due to drunk driving on New Year's Eve. Traffic cops cannot be everywhere, so citizens must assist them. So, we decided to volunteer and assist them during New Year's Eve and I have been doing so for the past five years. It's hard to convince families because they expect us to be with them. But, I manage to try and convince them that this is just as important as partying."

In order to improve safety and security in the IT corridor, the Cyberabad police, in collaboration with IT companies, established the Society for Cyberabad Security Council (SCSC) in 2006 and the traffic volunteers' initiative officially began in 2014. Since then, a number of techies have stepped forward, enlisted in SCSC and offered to help with traffic even during COVID-19.

These dedicated volunteers also assisted COVID control room activities during the 75 days of lockdown and participated in relief activities such as food distribution, grocery shopping, taking calls, blood donation and so on.