The Hindu : New Delhi News : Police drive against tinted glasses

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Aug 02, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Police drive against tinted glasses

From time to time the Delhi traffic police have shown their eagerness to clamp down on use of dark solar film on private vehicles. A couple of years ago, when a woman was abducted in a Maruti van from South Delhi and criminally assaulted in the vehicle before being dropped off in East Delhi, the police had decided to call it curtains for dark film.

However, the knee-jerk reaction remained just that and as the din over the incident died down, so did the traffic police's zeal to curb the violation. A few challans later, the drive faded away and gradually the number of vehicles with dark glasses swelled all over again.

Despite the sensational Dhaula Kuan abduction and assault case, the police failed to wake up. But the slumber ended with the Mayapuri incident when again a vehicle with dark films was used for targeting a woman.

This time round the police appear more than keen to remove the films. Not only are they challaning vehicles with dark glasses, they are also making the drivers remove either a part or the entire film so that the nuisance is actually got rid of. While people at large who see the traffic police personnel in action are appreciative of the manner in which they ensure that the films actually vanish from the car glasses, many wonder if the drive would remain a continuous thing or end up as a one-off affair.

Also, as in the last drive a lot of Government vehicles had got away unscathed, despite having dark films which violated the Central Motor Vehicle Rules, people are still unable to fathom if the recent move would also target the Government and other VIP vehicles - for criminals these days are capable of using any kind of vehicle.

-- Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar

A good Samaritan

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi may not have been able to rope in all its stray cattle which are often left to fend for themselves on the Capital's roads, but Delhiites seem to have a soft corner for their animals - at least when it comes to cows.

This happened on Saturday morning on the busy Minto Road crossing where a bus passenger sitting in one of the State Transport buses, which had stopped at the red light, threw out kneaded wheat dough in a transparent plastic bag towards some cows standing idly at the road divider.

As expected, the cows rushed towards the food packet and tried in vain to take the dough out of the packet. When they weren't able to reach the dough inside the packet, they decided to try and gobble the dough along with the plastic bag itself.

Alarmed with the harm that the plastic could cause the animal, a good Samaritan got out of her comfortable car and pulled the plastic bag out of the mouth of a rather annoyed cow which had practically "chewed" half the plastic bag by then.

And, of course, the lady also ensured that the cow did not go hungry. She actually took out the dough from the plastic bag and fed it to the cow.

While the entire episode took no more than half a minute, many who were waiting and watching at the traffic signal breathed a sigh of relief at the selfless good deed.

-- Bindu Shajan Perappadan

Roads flooded with "kawarias''

Over the past few years the practice of bringing "kanwars" from Hardwar by the devotees of Lord Shiva to the Capital has been on the rise. A week before "Shivratri", all major Delhi-Hardwar routes are flooded with "kawarias" leading to traffic jams and commotion on the roads.

A large number of camps have now come up in areas close to the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border for "kawarias". Several of them have come up right on the main road, obstructing smooth movement of traffic. And to add to the commuters' woes, at several places police pickets of both Delhi and neighbouring Ghaziabad have diverted traffic in their areas.

Though so far the entire event has passed off peacefully in Delhi, a slight mishap could lead to serious problems in the city. For instance, last year an Army vehicle hit a "kawaria" in the Cantonment Area, breaking the pot carrying the Ganga water. Angry "kawarias" blocked traffic till an Army vehicle brought in water from Hardwar. Several residents' organisations have asked the local administration to tackle this event more seriously by making elaborate arrangements.

This is not all. The Uttar Pradesh administration has even closed the highway connecting Delhi and Hardwar, while closure of schools and colleges has been ordered in various towns falling on the route, including Ghaziabad, so that the "kawarias" march could go on uninterrupted.

-- Sandeep Joshi

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