Two roads perpendicular to each other and leading to the back entrance of the Shadipur Metro Station used to be lined with cycle rickshaws earlier. The scene, with the rickshaw-wallahs vying with each other to snag a customer, was chaotic but it gave the station a busy and safe feel.
Now, the roads have been cleared and a gate barring entry has been installed. The rickshaws have been told not to loiter before the gates. However, barring the one time in the past few weeks when cops were buzzing around to keep order, this is a rule that has never been obeyed. As a result, the rickshaws are now onto the main road creating a traffic jam every 15 minutes and it has become an accident zone.
Inside the gates leading to the Metro station, the beggars have taken over. Be it the spaces vacated by the rickshaws or the interiors of the station, they can be seen swarming all over.
Oops!
A sub-inspector with the Delhi Police had a tongue-in-cheek moment when he mailed a picture of two journalists to a senior police officer’s personal assistant claiming that its the picture of the PA’s boss and another senior officer from their younger days and the PA showed the picture to the same journalists, who happened to be sitting with him that time. The sub-inspector had also placed a bet of Rs.3,000 with the PA over the same, which he ultimately lost.
Vote for “Khoji Patrakaar”
The Aam Aadmi Party is all out to exploit the credentials of the investigative journalist and the party candidate from New Delhi Parliamentary constituency, Ashish Khetan, while asking people to vote for the party. So much so the electorate are wondering of what use is the investigative journalist to their constituency.
The pamphlet party volunteers are distributing in the area flaunts Mr. Khetan’s 15 years of journalistic career and the scoops credited to him. Among the major ones the AAP leaflet talks about include Niira Radia tapes where Mr. Khetan “highlighted the nexus between the corporate and the politicians” and “exposed” the role of the Prime Ministers’ Office in the coal scam.
It also talks about Mr. Khetan having exposed “the Gujarat government’s snooping of a young woman” in the State.
Interestingly the pamphlet also talks about his works on the issue of innocents being wrongfully arrested, but it does not talk about terror connection of these cases.
It also claims that the Supreme Court praised Mr. Khetan for his works.
Nirbhaya, the play
This weekend, Delhi had the opportunity to witness ‘Nirbhaya’, the highly-acclaimed play based on the performers’ real life experiences and the brutal act of sexual violence meted out to a young physiotherapy student on a bus on the fateful night of December 16, 2012. While tickets could not be purchased online or at the retail outlets owing to the show being “completely sold out” according to the organisers, the afternoon show on Sunday at the FICCI auditorium had lots of empty seats.
Owing to what is commonly called the ‘Indian standard time’, the play which was supposed to begin at 4 p.m. sharp was delayed by ten minutes as the city’s residents came sauntering in. The play which was a dark and dramatic did leave many in the audience weeping especially during the re-enactment of the brutal attack. The play also received a standing ovation like it did in Mumbai last week and previously in London.
(By Vijetha S.N, Kritika Sharma, Mohammad Ali and Staff Reporter)
