The Hindu : New Delhi News : Reader's Mail

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Sep 04, 2006

New Delhi

New Delhi

Reader's Mail

Powerless in Delhi

A BSES squad sought entry into Takshshila Apartments in I.P. Extension the other day for inspection, testing and rectification of the electrical system or replacement of faulty meters on the society premises. After gaining entry into the society, they just went about replacing all the normally functioning, healthy meters with electronic meters without informing any consumer!

They did not even bother to get the old and new meter readings verified by the consumers. The entire job was completed within hours, when most of the consumers were not present on the premises.

Replacing healthy electrical meters of law-abiding consumers without bothering to ensure their presence or consent clearly points to mala fide intentions of BSES Yamuna.

The residents of Takshshila are feeling agitated.

Some of the residents who wanted to enquire about the validity of the BSES action were threatened to keep quiet or face disconnection and worse.

On the one hand BSES has completely failed to provide uninterrupted power supply to its consumers or prevent large-scale theft of energy across the city. On the other hand, it is engaged in harassing and cheating the honest consumers besides showing total disregard for DERC guidelines: "The meter can only be replaced in the presence of the consumer and the consumer has to verify the readings in the old and new meters."

S. Lahiri (President) and J.K. Chadha (Secretary),
Takshshila Co-operative Group Housing Society Ltd,
57, I.P. Extension,
Delhi - 110 092.

That mystery

"A mystery" by Ajay Thomas in these columns (June 26) came to us as a surprise. Here are the facts.

We got a distress call from Mr. Thomas late on the evening of April 11 to pick up a seriously sick dog. So we sent a vehicle at that late hour. The call was not made for animal sterilisation as claimed by Mr. Thomas in these columns.

In the normal course we pick up dogs for sterilisation only in the early morning hours. We never send out vehicles for sterilisation pick-up at late hours.

Normally in the evenings our driver is busy carrying dog food and attending to emergency calls. So after two requests from Mr. Thomas we sent the driver to attend the emergency call. The driver reached there after 10 p.m. and Mr. Thomas sent not just one sick dog but one more as well saying they are staying together. He also sent a donation of Rs. 500. Please note, we accept public donations, which are the main source of our daily sustenance and functioning.

Subsequently at his request one dog was sterilised by us and released on April 28. The other dog was sick, and Mr. Thomas visited us a couple of times to enquire about its condition and then he requested us to sterilise it as well. He was extremely happy to get the first dog released after surgery. In the meantime he said, "You people are doing a good job. I have already given you Rs. 500 as donation and will collect more for your cause." He took from us a blank receipt to collect donation for our welfare work.

After the recovery of the dog and its sterilisation we released it on May 7. In both the cases the bitches were inspected by Ramani Thomas and a donation of Rs. 100 was sent to us on May 7.

It is a matter of record that they have given us a total Rs. 600 a purely voluntary donation. Mr. Thomas still holds a blank receipt issued to him at his request. We had never come across any such case and we trusted him as an animal lover and tried to help him by sending our vehicle at an odd hour.

The whole episode boils down to this: he called the vehicle for a sick dog; the donations were given for general welfare activities; we never demanded any amount at any stage.

So we were surprised at the end of it all to find a police complaint against us by him. We were never prepared for such harassment.

We pick up eight to ten dogs per day for sterilisation and attend to calls for sick and injured animals. We are busy from morning to evening for rescue and pick-up of sick and injured animals.

Irani Mukherjee and
Dr. Mradul Mishra,
Circle of Animal Lovers (Regd),
E-67, DDA Flats, Saket,
New Delhi - 110 017.

Trees, please

The report, "Plant more trees" (August 18) quoted Delhi Assembly Speaker Chaudhary Prem Singh as appealing to the Capital's citizens to plant more and more trees to ensure a cleaner and greener Delhi. I urge my fellow-Delhiites to respond positively to this appeal made while launching a "Van Mahotsav" tree plantation drive.

It was Bertrand Russell who associated "trees" with "love" when he said: "Love should be a tree whose roots are deep in the earth but whose branches extend into heaven."

I was equally moved to see the paintings displayed at a photo exhibition held in New Delhi on Sikh shrines named after native species of trees (photo by Sandeep Saxena titled "Punjab's sacred heritage" in your columns, August 11). Such exhibitions bring out the glory of trees in our social, cultural, environmental and religious lives. I recommend that this exhibition be shown in all our schools and colleges.

Lt.-Col. (Retd.)
Onkar Chopra,
Flat-114A, Block-C2B,
Janakpuri,
New Delhi - 110 058.

Green lungs

The report by Bindu Shajan Perapaddan (August 2) talked of Aravalli bio-diversity park as a venture by Delhi University to act as a green lung for the Capital. This move will indeed tackle the rising pollution levels in the Capital. We need to maintain the greenery of the Delhi Ridge and this venture is a right step in this direction.

However, we also need bio-diversity parks in other areas. Till date, the Vasant Kunj Ridge prevails. Though the Supreme Court has put a stop to illegal constructions there, very little is being done to tackle the environmental depletion due to destruction of the ridge there. We need development and urbanisation, but not at the cost of our health and ecological balance.

Amna Mirza,
M. A. Final (Political Science),
Hindu College, University
of Delhi, Delhi - 110 007.

Metro alarm

The security system at the Delhi Metro stations is not up to the required standards. Most of the time I have boarded the Metro unchecked and so have many of my friends. Even when the security guards do check us, it's done very casually. Also, many a time, girls and women are allowed in without being checked because of unavailabilty of women security guards.

Quite recently a friend of mine boarded the Metro after having loaded her scooty aboard a train for Patna, carrying two bottles of petrol that had been taken out of the scooty, in her bag, and easily walked past the security guards. Had she been checked, she would have been fined.

Swati Roy,
B.A. (Honours) Political Science IIIrd year,
Miranda House ,
Delhi University,
Delhi - 110 007.

(Letters for this column may be sent by e-mail to wsins@thehindu.co.in. They must carry the full postal address of the writer and should be marked "Reader's Mail".)

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