The Hindu : New Delhi News : Inside Delhi

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Aug 31, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Inside Delhi

Awry forecasts

Unpredictable seems to be the mood of the season. The past few months of the so-called monsoon took not only Delhiites by surprise but also the Met Department. Or so it seems.

As the "rainiest months" for the Capital passed by relatively dry, it seems the relentless weather has caught the Met Department on the wrong foot. Even as announcement of an early monsoon in some parts of the country took the residents by surprise, the Met Department consistently maintained that the monsoon would arrive in the Capital on the expected date.

Unfortunately, June 29 came and passed but the sky remained cloudless, or, as the Met Department would put it, "mainly clear".

For Delhiites, the recent spate of rain over the past week appeared like an unexpected bonus. But the heavy downpour also seems to have caught the weather department off guard.

While the weatherman forecast a continuation of the rain, unfortunately the Capital woke up to a sunny day on Thursday.

It seems the unpredictable weather has evaded the weatherman as well. So next time the forecast reads "rain or thundershowers are expected in some areas", perhaps you will do well to leave the umbrella on the rack!

Parking woes

Due to scarce availability of parking space in the Capital and the ever-increasing number of vehicles on the roads, many private parking lot operators are making a killing. And every now and then they come up with some novel idea to extract money from people.

The other day a friend along with her family went to the Karol Bagh market for shopping. After driving around for a while, she finally found a parking place on Arya Samaj Road. She paid the parking lot attendant in advance and went to shop.

A couple of hours later, when she returned to the parking lot and was about to start her vehicle, a man approached her saying she had not paid for the parking. Taken aback, she produced the receipt she had got from the person supposed to be running that parking lot. The person, however, claimed that the chit was of another parking lot adjacent to his. In the meantime, the perplexed friend spotted the man who had given her the chit and shouted at him, requesting him to clear the confusion.

After over 15 minutes of heated argument, the friend finally gave up and paid for the second time.

Poor roads

The rain gods might have ushered in good weather, but it has brought its own share of problems like traffic jams, waterlogging and potholed roads. Ironically enough, it is the otherwise "dry" areas like Vasant Kunj, Mahipalpur and Vasant Gaon which are often the worst hit.

"The roads in this area are not the best anyway, but when it rains they just get worse. The potholes in the street are so big that we would rather drive 15 minutes extra than take the shorter road home. We have complained many times, but no one comes to repair it. When we need water in summer there is none, but we are flooded by the rain," a resident of Vasant Kunj complained.

With the authorities completely unprepared to handle the rain, it just goes to show how serious they are. "It is really strange that everything goes awry during the monsoon. Why can't the authorities be proactive? It just goes to show how bad the construction of the roads is if they get washed away in the first showers," another Delhiite observed.

Devesh Pandey and

Mandira Nayar.

By Anjali Dhal Samanta, Devesh Pandey and Mandira Nayar.

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