The Hindu : New Delhi News : Inside Delhi

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Dec 28, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Inside Delhi

`Rakesh' rules

the city

If water, electricity, sanitation and primary health care are considered the lifelines of any city, then "Rakesh'' is the name that is ruling over Delhi. Call it sheer coincidence or whatever, three individuals with Rakesh as their first name are heading the three crucial utilities of Delhi.

As the Municipal Commissioner of Delhi, Rakesh Mehta is responsible for providing basic civic amenities including sanitation, cleanliness, primary education and basic health care for to the nearly 140 lakh residents. As administrative head of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, Mr. Mehta has unleashed a series of reforms in urban governance over the past two-and-a-half years.

Ever since Rakesh Mohan joined Delhi Jal Board as its Chief Executive Officer a few months ago, the DJB has been moving in a new direction. His admirers say that the "dynamic" officer would solve the water woes of the Capital, while his critics claim that he is preparing the ground for handing over the water utility to multinationals.

As the Chief Executive Officer of both BSES Yamuna Power and BSES Rajdhani Power, Rakesh Aggarwal is responsible for the supply of reliable quality power to the residents of two-thirds of the city.

Interestingly, in the Capital's power sector the top three individuals at present are students of the Delhi College of Engineering. Besides Mr. Aggarwal, the CEO of the North Delhi Power Limited, Anil Sardana, and the Chairman of Delhi Transco, Arun Goyal, studied at DCE at Kashmere Gate. Not only this, Mr. Sardana and Mr. Goyal were roommates in the college hostel!

Soft excuses

Of late the Transport Department has been urging commuters to report the misdemeanours of auto-rickshaw and taxi drivers in the Capital on Complaint No. 9604-400-400. However, the drivers seem to have become smart enough not to irritate the commuters, yet get away with things like overcharging and refusing to go to certain destinations.

Coming a long way from the rude responses, they now offer soft excuses. The most common one for refusing to go to a particular destination is that they do not have enough gas in the tank.

But when it comes to overcharging, they are ready with a host of arguments. A typical argument goes something like this: "Sir, meter se chaliye lekin dus paanch rupaye extra de dijiyega" (Sir, of course, I will take you by the meter. But, please pay me five or ten rupees extra). The excuse would be that the meter is running slowly.

Most drivers argue that if they go by the meter they would not be able to bear even their daily expenses. Then there are the economics of plying an auto-rickshaw on the Capital's roads. The drivers claim that the actual cost of a vehicle is Rs. 1.2 lakhs but in the black market it comes to about Rs. 2.4 lakhs. And if they go strictly by the meter, they would not be able to even recover the cost in time.

So here is the new improved driver who offers "sound economic reasons" for fleecing the commuter. Does the poor commuter have anything apart from the complaint number to bail him out?

Safeguarding data

In this cyber age when hacking, theft of information and stalking have become a nuisance for Internet users, a search for an effective deterrent has led the software experts to explore encryption as a method to safeguard the data they store or transmit through their computers.

Based on the same technique, a computer software named `WonderCrypt' has recently been developed to secure not only e-mail contents and instant messages exchanged on the Internet, but also the files, folders and documents stored in the computer hardware. The software, developed by Wonder Software Technologies, can be used to encrypt files meant for individuals and also for multiple recipients.

The software developers claim that through this technology the users can ensure that the files and e-mails they send are accessed and read only by the intended recipients, as users at both ends are provided unique keys for decrypting the transmitted data. They can also put in their digital signatures on encrypted mails confirming their identity to the recipient. Such an arrangement is there to negate the possibility of someone sending proxy mails, reading others' mails or even getting them diverted to his account.

Proving to be effective in almost all the fields, the software has been installed by several multinational banks and vital government agencies, including Parliament here in the Capital. Going by the system of algorithms it is based on, WonderCrypt appears to be a foolproof package even for individual computer users.

Prashant Pandey and

Devesh K. Pandey

By Lalit K. Jha, Prashant Pandey and Devesh K. Pandey

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