I got over 400 calls over the last few hours. I even got calls from the Hyderabad Police, the GHMC Zonal commissioner and bunch of other authorities, to check if this was an authentic number or not
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Ashish Jain Attention please. ANY ONE FINDS ANY SLUM AREAS OR LOW LEVEL AREAS who are suffering with the Food problem due to this heavy rainfall Plz call me urgently Ashish jain (sic)” — this viral message was shared lakhs of times from several handles, including the official Hyderabad Traffic Police account.
And Ashish Jain’s phone hasn’t stopped ringing. “I got over 400 calls over the last few hours. I even got calls from the Hyderabad Police, the GHMC Zonal commissioner and bunch of other authorities, to check if this was an authentic number or not,” says Ashish, adding, that about 40 per cent of the calls have been from concerned citizens who wanted to check the authenticity of the message. As he oversees the preparation of dal and rice, and the packing of the food parcels, which includes drinking water and biscuits for about 400 people, Ashish says, “As part of activities of the Jain Samaj we take food for people in government hospitals every day in the morning before we begin our day’s work. Today, that routine has taken a new course with the
Hyderabad rains.” once the meals are packed the team will reach out to areas that are affected. “We got calls from Ambedkar Nagar, Allwyn Colony, Malkajgiri, NMDC and many other areas. Right now, we have about 15 people working,” he informs, before rushing off to complete the task at hand, in their rasoi in Begum Bazar.