Jane DoeVoice of Amritsar (VOA) was created as an aftermath of agitation for Janlokpal Bill & the anti-corruption movement. The aim was to continue public awareness in all fields with special emphasis on development of the city Amritsar. On 8th of April 2011, history was created when over 300 people assembled impromptu to support the cause of anti-corruption movement. All like minded people joined the movement and this lead to the creation of the FB page VOA for the city centric problems.
People from all walks of life were welcome to post liberally so that Voice of Amristsae could become a flagship against corruption, bad administration, bad governance and above all poor people compliance to all initiatives of the administration or NGOs. With the creation of VOA, the seeds of 3rd media were sown which is not corruptible, in which everybody can be an administrator, a journalist or an editor. The members were encouraged to get their act together by making opinions on various issues and help the administration formulate people friendly policies. The slogan of Voice of Amritsar is ‘Long Live the Spirit of Clean and Fair Society’, ‘Long Live Clean and Green Amritsar’.
Agenda of Voice of Amritsar
VOA has taken up various projects in Amritsar ranging from doing awareness campaigns in almost all the schools of Amritsar taking cleanliness drives to badly littered areas of the holy city. Their FB group was the brainchild of Dr. Rakesh Sharma, a surgeon by profession and Associate professor of surgery in Govt. Medical College Amritsar. There was so much enthusiasm in the people of Amritsar that the FB group quickly turned into an NGO known by the same name and Dr. Rakesh Sharma was honoured with Founder President’s responsibility with Indu Aurora as the Vice President. In his tenure as President for two years, the Group grew with daily enrolment of new members. Now, VOA stands tall with 19000 odd members and counting.
Over 10,000 trees were planted this season alone says CA Mandeep Singh, who takes care of finances. Seenu Arora, the tall lanky fellow one of the brains behind the success of VOA, took over as the President with Indu Aurora as his deputy. In his tenure, apart from carrying the various campaigns, a truck load of relief material was sent to the flood ravaged state of Jammu & Kashmir which was flagged off by DC and DTO of Amritsar. Voice of Amritsar has also contributed significantly served langar (community meal). Another popular campaign called ‘One Child One Tree was launched previous year in which the school children were given a sapling each, to plant in their houses and also bringing them up. This scheme was immensely appreciated and became the motivation for various plantation drives carried henceforth by various organisations including VOA. They partnered with & Big FM for various campaigns and involved media in the same. They also installed dustbins in various places.
The list of works carried by VOA is endless and so are their wishes. VOA dreams to make Amritsar the most beautiful place on earth. Amritsar, being the holy city is host to over 1 lakh visitors each day with the number swelling on festive occasions and VOA wants to show cause the city to the world. There is still a long way to go, but the group as a whole is upbeat on a positive outcome. VOA takes the solemn responsibility of giving sincere voice to the wishes of the people of Amritsar without any political or religious affiliations.
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