The Hindu : New Delhi News : Inside Delhi

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Dec 21, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Inside Delhi

Quack-free Capital

The newly elected chairperson of the anti-quackery committee of the Delhi Medical Council (DMC), K. K. Kohli, has promised to make the Capital quack-free in the next two years to ensure that no unqualified person practises the modern system of medicine.

While the Capital has been trying to crack down on the quacks operating in the city, their number seems to have increased with the low rate of prosecution.

This time round, the DMC chairperson says an extensive campaign to identify quacks would be launched in the Capital with help from the Delhi Doctors' Association (DDA) and the involvement of non-government organisations.

The campaign, however, will not stop here, according to Dr. Kohli, since quackery is a social problem. So an awareness campaign among the residents' welfare associations is essential.

Dr. Kohli said there was a proposal to make area-wise directory of all the quacks and after identification initiate action against them to make the Capital quack-free. He also called on the Capital's citizens to give information about any operating quacks in the city to DMC and assist it in its campaign.

`Murder' for love

Young couples in the Capital seem to want to go that extra length to proclaim their love. From filming intimate moments to carving their names on monuments, they certainly want to make their love story "permanent" as this young college-going Delhiite discovered.

Taking a walk in the Humayun's Tomb World Heritage Site, she found a young girl writing on the wall of Nai-ka-Gumbad. Horrified, she tried to stop the girl from carving "I Love You'' on a monument that was well over 400 years old. However, the love-struck girl did not seem to see the logic of the futility of ruining heritage. The girl insisted that she had started writing the sentence and should be allowed to finish. She argued that it was her right of "free speech".

A political science student, the young college girl finally won the day by the sheer force of her ability to not give up on an argument. But while she might have won one battle, most monuments in the city are losing the war to romancing couples desperate to make their relationship special. Despite the mandatory blue board outside every monument protected by the Archaeological Survey of India warning people that any damage to the building will result in a fine or imprisonment, nothing is ever done.

Making a mockery

It was with much difficulty and following the intervention of the Supreme Court that the Delhi Traffic Police were finally able to close down a number of cuts in the central medians of various roads across the Capital which led to a smoothening of traffic flow in the city. However, there is still one road in New Delhi where as many as four cuts remain on a less than 500-metre section -- and ironically enough it happens to be right outside the Delhi High Court.

Making a mockery of the entire process of closure of "dispensable" medians -- which was vehemently opposed by a number of politicians as it affected the business of various banquet halls and hotels which pressed for the cuts as those suited their marriage programmes -- this section of the road has now shown the inability of the Delhi police to apply the same yardstick to all no matter how high and mighty they were.

What's more, this road outside the Delhi High Court also pokes a finger at the nose of Delhi police each day as traffic violations are brazen here what with vehicles occupying two of the four lanes at any time the Court is in session.

Furthermore, flouting all prescribed norms as many as eight speed-breakers exist on this road making it a nightmare for any motorist. But what is difficult to comprehend is why the very righteous Delhi police who pride themselves on being one of the boldest police forces have shied away from dealing with these cuts, speed-breakers and parking violations -- all when they have the apex court rulings to help them in the conduct of their duties in the right way.

By Bindu Shajan Perappadan, Mandira Nayar and Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar

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