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Inside Delhi

Metro going from

bad to worse

Though it had raised the bar several notches in so many ways when it came to adopting professional yardsticks while constructing the huge Delhi Metro project, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation has of late been earning a bad name because of some of its contractors who do not work with a similar zeal.

Take the case of Sikandra Road that connects Mandi House to ITO and had recently been laid anew after the construction of a metro line. Within a few weeks of operation the road has deteriorated a great deal. Big potholes have come up at several places and many a time two-wheeler riders who go over them lose their balance creating a very perilous situation for themselves and other road users, especially at night.

Worse still, while the situation has existed for quite some time now, no one in Delhi Metro seems bothered to take note of it and act. The approach appears to be that of any other civic agency in the Capital. But this does not bode well for the DMRC that had earned a reputation for itself through some meticulously well-planned and executed work in the past.

Even across the Yamuna, the situation is equally bad with several trucks engaged in Metro construction activity regularly using the wrong side of the Noida bund road near Sri Oil Company and National Highway-24 for travelling to and from the construction sites. These trucks not only disrupt vehicular movement, they also pose a threat to vehicles plying as per the rules and moving on the right carriageway.

Even in Laxmi Nagar, where Metro pillars are coming up for the new line, the chaos all round is to be seen to be believed.

Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar

Parking woes

This is one nightmare that haunts nearly every car owner in the Capital: parking. While parking woes may be legendary, the attitude of parking attendants is perhaps worse. With almost all parking attendants across the city, especially in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) areas overcharging car owners -- the standard trick is to charge people Rs. 10 to park the car by tearing off the ticket at the right place -- movie-goers at Basant Lok complex on Sunday are often forced to shell out more as a Delhiite learnt the hard way the other day.

Forced to visit the market on Sunday, she finally found a parking space only to be warned by the parking lot attendant that she could park only if she was not going to watch a film. The standard rate for parking the car and watching a movie, he explained, was a flat Rs. 20. A blatant violation of the rule, which clearly states that car owners pay Rs. 5 for the first two hours and then Rs. 2 after that.

From refusing to accept Rs. 5 for two hours, parking attendants run the most profitable rackets in the city, with even the police choosing to turn a blind eye to the open loot. And it seems this mafia is just too powerful to topple over.

Mandira Nayar

Experiments in art

To explore the multiple ecological variants of the river Yamuna in contemporary times, Khoj International Artists' Association showcased the works of Delhi-based artists Atul Bhalla and Ravi Agarwal over the weekend.

The "open day" of Khoj Eco-Art Residency, which seeks to enhance Public awareness of environmental and ecological issues through the medium of art, started on January 9 this year with an orientation programme on the banks of the Yamuna. The place was chosen to familiarise the people with the beauty and serenity of the river.

Both Atul and Ravi think of the historic river in the conceptual sense and relate to it in their works as a personal reflection on the self and the changing city.

Says Ravi: "I have been visiting the Yamuna since my childhood and it was a good feeling to be there far from the hustle-bustle of the city. For the past two years the river has been the source of inspiration for my works."

Pointing out that Khoj has been instrumental in providing them with a platform to experiment on eco-art, Atul says: "Through our contribution to this residency of eco art, we aim to bring back the lost glory of the Yamuna. It is sad to see how the river has degraded and become insignificant in people's imagination over time."

Madhur Tankha

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