The Delhi Traffic Police have started
a Facebook page which has become immensely popular.
Delhi residents enthusiastically post photos there, photos of
people on motorcycles without helmets, cars stopped in crosswalks, drivers on cell phones, drivers in the middle of illegal turns.In two months, Delhi Traffic police have issued 665 tickets, tracking down violators by the license plate numbers caught in the photos.
The police are aware that people might use the site to settle old scores and that photos could be manipulated.
However Delhi’s joint commissioner of traffic, Satyendra Garg says 'drivers can contest the tickets if they feel they were wrongly issued'.He also says
“We advise while you are driving not to take a photo of a fellow driver who is breaking traffic laws. Using a cell phone camera while driving is in itself a violation.”
Traffic light ko dhak diya to kya hua, mera kaam to ho gaya...
This can happen only in India...
This is not happening in remote areas where the Indian state has failed and Maoists hold sway. This is right under its seat in Delhi.
A routine regularisation process of 87 beldars working for the Municipal Corporation of Delhi has revealed that while they have been
drawing salary for the past 15 years, they have got no work records. Some senior officials have, however, been signing their daily work book.
There have been reports that as many as 46,000 of the 100,000 employees on the rolls of the MCD could be non-existent.
If this can happen in India's capital in broad daylight, one can imagine what has been happening elsewhere for decades, and where bulk of the funds allotted for NREGA must be going.
Ghost employees create 'ghost' millionaires. India must have the maximum number of both in the world.
The Delhi Metro is making a big difference and the city proud, thanks to Mr E Sreedharan.
The cost of construction of Phase-1 was Rs 10,571 crores. The value of social and economic benefits like passenger time saved, fuel cost saved, reduction in capital/operating cost of vehicles, will be Rs 10,801.64 crores by March 2012, helping recover the cost two years ahead of schedule.
Here are
some impressive statistics according to a CRRI study:
Daily ridership up to 8.5 lakhs/day
57, 953 vehicles off the roads daily
255 accidents, including 51 fatalities to be avoided in 2009
Commuters saving Rs 947.07 crores annually due to reduced time of travel and Rs 180.89 crores due to fuel
Emission of harmful greenhouse gases reduced by 1,31,614 tonnes/year
Similar Metros are needed in other cities too.
Congress leaders may be flying
“cattle class”, thanks to the wonky austerity drive now in place, but citizens of Delhi will soon get 7-star comforts on the ground itself. Well, at least when they want to piddle!
The Municipal Corporation of Delhi is planning to
construct as many as 300 toilets that will be better than the ones you get in 5-star hotels, with soap dispensers, hand dyers, fancy washbasins etc. Casual users will be charged Rs 2 while the regular ones will be able to buy a toilet card!
That is not all. Each block will also have coffee shops, fast-food joints, flower shops, ice-cream parlours etc. Mercifully, these will be operated by private operators having a brand value of minimum Rs 5,000 crore.
Costing Rs 1 crore each, they will come up before the Commonwealth Games.
As per Hindu legends, Kalpavriksha (Wish-granting Tree) was one of the “14 jewels” that emerged from the ocean
after Samudra Manthan. The tree is also mentioned in the Rig Veda.
The tree, which is native to South Africa, has a life-span of 2,500-3,000 years, with the oldest one being about 6,000 years old. It grows to a height of 70 feet and has a hollow tree-trunk with a diameter of 35 feet. Every part of the tree has medicinal properties. Its fruit has six times more Vitamin C than oranges and twice as much calcium as cow's milk.
In Delhi only three Kalpvrikshas exist.
1,000 saplings are being procured and will be planted across the city shortly.
My hunch is that they will be planted in or close to bungalows of politicians. They need them the most!
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Picture: The bas-relief from Angkor Wat,Cambodia, shows Vishnu in the centre, his turtle avatar Kurma below, asuras and devas to left and right. Source: Wikipedia
