JOIN USMeter Jam campaign fails again
Meter Jam, after its first attempt to boycott autos and taxis in August, had come back to haunt City’s autorickshaws and taxi drivers on Tuesday. And claimed it had more weapons in their arsenal this time around.
And true, the online campaign against ‘refusing’ and ‘overcharging’ autorickshaws and taxis, had Myntra, an on-demand personalisation platform for products, gifts and cool
merchandise on its side.
The role of Myntra was to provide opportunity for passengers to voice their opinion and build a voice for society in trying to effect a change by providing personalised T-shirts, besides helping out in the online campaign through various forums.
Also, owing to its growing number of supporters, the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) operated additional bus services by pooling its spare fleet.
Not even aware
However, nothing worked in really tampering the business of automen. In fact, none of the drivers were even aware of such an initiative.
Autorickshaw Drivers’ Union (ARDU) Working President Srinivas Murthy said: “What is that (Meter Jam) about? All our vehicles are alright. Business is as usual and there has barely been any impact.”
The campaign, though popular among many, has some how just been an online initiative and has not really produced any results. On whether campaign needs to reach the auto drivers, where people tell them why they are boycotting autos to achieve the ‘real’ results, Meter Jam Bangalore Head Ravi Bansal said: “They need to know why we are boycotting them. And we have learnt that is important to achieve our ultimate goal.”
In nascent stage
Bansal told Deccan Herald that the campaign is still in the nascent stage but had already garnered a good response. “People are working out ways and means to reach out all target audience,” he added.
Myntra and Meter Jam have embarked upon several initiatives offline, including partnering with as many 17 companies that have actively been participating in the campaigns held across various schools and colleges.
They will also make a formal representation with the Transport minister after the political crisis is resolved and take the next step forward in a big way. All said and done, Meter Jam, for now only remains an online campaign.