The Hindu : New Delhi News : Inside delhi

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Tuesday, Nov 10, 2009
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New Delhi

New Delhi

Inside delhi

Errant as ever

A friend had an unpleasant experience when she travelled to Delhi Cantonment from Connaught Place by an auto-rickshaw late in the evening the other day.

Since the auto driver was willing to go by the meter only if the night charge was also paid, the friend negotiated an acceptable amount prior to boarding the vehicle. The auto driver did not seem to know the route, so the friend guided him with directions.

However, as soon as the driver came to a road he recognised, he began to grumble that the friend had brought him along a longer route. Taken aback, the friend replied that she had guided the driver along the route she was familiar with. Still the driver persisted in arguing.

Heartily sick, the friend decided to remain silent and not retort back. The auto was nearing her house when the driver objected once again that he had been brought in a direction opposite to the destination he had been told to go.

Exasperated, the friend clarified that it was roughly the same direction and distance.

Once inside the housing society where the friend stays, the driver suddenly slowed down and told her to walk the rest of the distance. The now angry passenger sharply told the driver to behave himself. The driver reluctantly drove the rest of the distance.

So much for the Tourism Department’s much trumpeted campaign to discipline the Capital’s auto drivers ahead of the Commonwealth Games!

Urvashi Sarkar

“Proggy Award”

Children might miss this “toy”, but the Khadi and Village Industries Commission has recommended a ban on catapults, calling them “popular but destructive weapons”.

Not surprisingly, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (India) has welcomed the decision bestowing the Commission with the “Proggy Award”.

“Proggy Awards are given to businesses and individuals who implement progressive and humane business practices that take animals into consideration,” says PETA India’s Ashish Verma.

Member of Parliament Maneka Gandhi says: “Children all over India have been aiming catapults at birds, cows, dogs and other animals, often blinding or killing them. Children form ammunition from sun-hardened mud mixed with crushed glass, metal balls, marbles and stones.”

According to her, the rubber used to make catapults is smuggled in from Myanmar and this rubber is more lethal, enabling shooters to send the shots faster and farther than rubber taken from old tyres which was used in the past.

Bindu Shajan Perappadan

Doing an ugly job

The increase in bus fares in the Capital recently has not been easy on the commuters, but conductors and bus drivers too have had their moments of anxiety. With passengers refusing to shell out more money, the hapless conductors are finding themselves at their wit’s end trying to justify the new fares.

“Most passengers crib, but pay up. There are, however, many who argue and then it turns ugly. We do realise that it isn’t easy for commuters to pay double of what they were used to earlier, but then we cannot be held responsible. We are like everyone else just doing our job,” said a conductor, who keeps a copy of a newspaper report about the fare hike to pacify passengers.

Pasting bills about the revised fares, he said, was not good enough. “Commuters often accuse us of increasing fares on our own and putting up fake bills, which is why we then show them the newspaper reports. The Government should widely publicise that it has decided to increase the fares and not the bus drivers and conductors,” he said.

Smriti Kak Ramachandran

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