The Hindu : New Delhi News : A revelation

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Apr 26, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

A revelation

Parents whose children appear for various competitive tests after Class XII face a rather tough time waiting endlessly outside the examination centres while their wards are busy cracking problems.

In one such case, a Delhiite wondered how she would she spend a total of six hours while her daughter took the tests in two sittings. The school building looked in a sad state of disrepair and the locality was rather "low grade" for her liking. However, she and other parents realised later just how beneficial was the school lawn which was green and surrounded by shady trees. The canopy was good enough to help them beat the heat as the sun began to beat down from a cloudless sky.

"Spending six hours was not going to be easy. But when so many people got chatting under a cool shade, the hours passed by quite quickly," she said.

The following week, her daughter's centre was in a public school. Due to some problems related to admission card, they had to visit the centre a day before the examination. Both mother and the daughter were simply dazzled by the spic and span look, space and infrastructure of the school.

On D-Day, this particular lady, and also other parents, seemed to be harbouring thoughts of spending the next three hours in the air-conditioned conference room. But just as the examinations started, they were asked to leave the school premises and the gates were locked. "Some women tried to get permission for all of us to wait inside, but to no avail," lamented the mother.

Some then went to a nearby market to have soft drinks and "nimbu paani" to beat the heat. Others sought solace under the only tree in a badly maintained park at some distance.

Prashant Pandey

To curb child diabetes

Leaving their conventional haunts -- clinics and out patients' departments -- doctors would be joining hands with a special group of children and cricketer Harbhajan Singh to spread awareness about a deadly ailment that is increasingly being noticed among children in the Capital.

Delhi will play host to a special function organised specifically for diabetic children who will get a chance to come speak about diabetes and listen to experts and doctors from across the country. They will also get tips from Harbhajan Singh to keep fit.

In an effort to prevent obesity and diabetes, the Delhi Diabetes Research Centre (DDRC) has called over 100 diabetic children, school children and their parents to interact with Harbhajan Singh and doctors at the Indian Medical Association this Tuesday at 5 p.m.

"We have called Harbhajan Singh who will give tips to the children on exercise and controlled diet to keep the younger generation fighting fit. The function is aimed at telling the younger generation to shape up and prevent lifestyle-related ailments that are on the rise in the Capital. Also worrying is the fact that diabetes is growing younger and more dangerous and we need to curb that graph. And sessions like these would go a long way in helping them livelong and stay healthy,'' said an organiser.

Bindu Shajan Perappadan

Signal lacuna

Though the New Delhi area had gone in for an automatic synchronised traffic signalling system a few years ago, one seldom gets the hint of this system being in operation as against giving the optimum signal at any point of time to allow maximum volumes of traffic to pass through, most of the lights only stick to fixed time slots -- which unduly increase the waiting time at late hours or off-peak hours, thereby tempting many motorists to jump the light.

Even late in the night when the volumes of traffic are very low, most of the traffic lights in the Capital continue to stick to the 30 or 40-second pulse for either side which in effect results in a maximum waiting time of 90 or 120 seconds. At a late hour this really tests the patience of the motorists since there are not more than a score of vehicles on any given side then and they tale just about 10 seconds to pass by. So for the rest of the period of the 30 second or 40 second pulse all the other vehicles just wait for no rhyme or reason.

This lacuna is visible at many places like Ferozeshah Road-Kasturba Gandhi Marg Intersection, A-Point or W-point near ITO or the intersection of Mathura Road and Purana Quila Road. But while it may appear to be just a matter of time, it is not. It is also a matter of life and death for the motorists.

Very often motorists are tempted to jump the light as they see no vehicle coming from either side and thereafter over a period of time they develop the habit of jumping the lights. What's more, the numerous taxi operators driving in Delhi, already appear to have developed a penchant for poking a nose at the law in every way and have almost got used to giving these lights a go- by.

Herein lies the real danger. With the signal system working, motorists for whom the light is ``green'' presume that others would be waiting at the crossing and thus just choose to breeze past. And it is at such times that most accidents happen. So it seems it would be better that either the Traffic Police set their signalling system in order or put the ``amber'' signal on at late hours so that everyone is cautious and not fatally over-confident while crossing the intersection.

Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

New Delhi

News Update

Stories in this Section