The Hindu : New Delhi News : Inside Delhi

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 20, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Inside Delhi

Waste segregation

Even after the hue and cry over segregation of waste in the Capital, not much appears to have been done on that front. Far from segregating waste, even the coloured bins -- blue and green -- that can be spotted in the city these days are full of mixed waste.

Provided by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, these coloured bins have become mere alternate garbage cans. Though the coloured bins are still hard to spot around the Capital, in localities where they have been placed, the golden rule of segregation -- blue for non-biodegradable and green for bio-degradable -- has been mostly ignored.

Instead of the segregated waste, all kinds of garbage finds its way into the bins, thus defeating the very purpose of these different coloured bins.

While the MCD is to blame for the slow start to the campaign, the onus for the success of the campaign also rests on the citizens. It is the responsibility of citizens to ensure that mixed waste does not reach the bins so that segregation can become a possibility.

Monkey business

While travelling by Delhi's three-wheeler scooter rickshaws usually proves to be a harrowing experience for most passengers, one of them was particularly bemused when she took an auto to travel home from New Delhi railway station recently. And the reason lay in the fact that the name of the electronic meter installed therein sounded like "monkey".

Since three-wheeler operations have actually become a monkey business with the drivers fleecing the passengers by not plying as per the meter reading, the passenger felt the name of the meter only gave some sort of legitimacy to the arbitrary manner in which the vehicles were being run in complete violation of the rules and norms.

Despite repeated attempts -- or the mere show of them -- by the Delhi Government, the auto drivers continue to operate on their whims. They refuse to take passengers to particular destination, do not want to go by the meter, often fix rates at over 50 per cent to 100 per cent of the actual fares and even go to the extent of operating as touts and pimps.

Though the former Transport Minister, Ajay Maken, had tried to rein them in by opening a helpline and cracking down on them on numerous occasions, the drives failed to make an impact. And his successor, Haroon Yusuf, has followed an even easier path of completely ignoring the issue.

As a result, the poor passengers find themselves hounded by auto-rickshaw drivers. The moment someone comes out of any of the railway stations, there are drivers who just converge on the person offering to take him to any destination but at their rates. Even the pre-paid counters are kept crowded by these drivers who try to wean away the passengers on one pretext or another.

Those who manage to go either by the pre-paid service or by a non-tampered meter consider themselves fortunate, while others take the fleecing in their stride as it has really become a monkey business in the Capital.

Jamun woes

Remember the good old jamun sellers of Delhi who used to pick up the fruit as it fell from trees at this time of the year and sell them at important crossings? Well, these legendary sellers are now passé and they have been replaced by a new breed of sellers who not only collect jamuns from elsewhere and sell it in the Capital but have also become a traffic hazard.

The jamun sellers on and around the road leading to India Gate from Rajendra Prasad Road are a case in point. Since a large number of people passing through the road stop by to buy the jamuns, there is an obstruction to the smooth flow of traffic. The road leading to India Gate being narrow, those who park their cars to buy the jamuns make the movement of traffic all the more difficult.

Such is the traffic jam created here at times that accidents become unavoidable. The situation is accentuated by the fact that the road leading to Man Singh Road is closed for traffic in the morning as well as in the evening. As a result, people who want to take Man Singh Road proceed towards India Gate via Akbar Road and then they take a U-turn to retrace the route towards Lodhi Estate again. This also creates a traffic hazard on Akbar Road adding to the confusion created by the jamun sellers.

It is time the Delhi Traffic Police paid attention to this matter and started penalising those who do not obey the traffic rules.

`Costly' marriages

Marriages will become an even more expensive affair in the Capital now with the Union Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram, in his annual Budget bringing pandals, shamianas and outdoor catering under the service tax net.

According to outdoor caterers and pandal and shamiana contractors, this will "considerably" increase the cost of organising marriages and receptions in Delhi. "As the service tax will be 10 per cent, there will be a corresponding increase in the cost of marriages," says Mohan Kumar, a pandal and shamiana contractor.

In the case of farmhouses, the increase will be much more as the Municipal Corporation of Delhi recently imposed a hefty "misuse charge" for organising such events in violation of the Delhi Master Plan. "Naturally, we will not pay for it. The cost will be passed on to the clients," says a farmhouse owner in South Delhi who frequently rents it out for such events.

Though outdoor caterers like V.P. Singh of Karol Bagh claims that such a decision would have an adverse impact on their business, insiders in the trade are of the view that this is unlikely to affect them. "Marriages and receptions are social obligations and they cannot be stopped. As for parties in farmhouse and outdoor catering, they are mostly organised by rich people, businessmen and commercial establishment who may mind a 10 per cent increase in the cost of holding such events but will have no choice in the matter really," an insider said.

`New' India Gate

The police Memorial might be giving Lutyens' admirers sleepless nights over its lack of aesthetics, but for its `builders' it is a copy of one of his best designs: India Gate.

Working furiously on this steel and concrete structure for a year now, Parvati, a labourer from Chhattisgarh, firmly believes it is a replica of Lutyens' war memorial. And interestingly she is not alone. The manager of a contractor working on the paving around the memorial shares the same idea.

"It is like India Gate. The only difference is that it is dedicated to the officers who died in the Army. This one will be for the police," he explains. While he does not know what the memorial symbolises or who the architect of the "new" India Gate is, he is sure that it will be a place most Delhiites will want to visit. "It will have shops and there is a lot of space for people to sit, so I think it will be popular," he adds.

While imitation might be the best form of flattery, one thing is for sure, Edwin Lutyens will certainly beg to differ on this one.

By Anjali Dhal Samanta, Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar, K. Kannan, Lalit K. Jha and Mandira Nayar

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