Calling 100--Sleeping Police

Active Aseem: truck car wham bam

Misery goes on for India child workers

BBC NEWS | South Asia | Misery goes on for India child workers

The problem of child labor needs more harsh rules and enforcement. I believe the humanity in us has dies when we employ and exploit these children as home servants.

But There are many families who keep domestic help children nicely and help them have decent lives. Atleast better than what they would have got in their villages and with their families..

MCD Departmentwise Complaints Breakdown

Departmentwise Complaints Breakdown

check the dismal percentage of complaints that MCD resolves.

Holy Stray cows

Coming and going from Noida everyday there are always few cows blocking the streets, some almost causing an accident. I use to wonder why the foreigners when they come to India are so anused by the cows on the roads. . These cows just should not be there...These cows cause injuries and accidents and eat rubbish and give milk which instead of being good for health is bad,,

Will the civic authorities at Noida wake some day??

CNG distribution in Delhi

CNG distribution in Delhi is the monopoly of indrapstha gas limited. Therefore the people who are used to pampering and quick service at petrol stations, just forget that. Here the staff is rude. Customer service is not the mantra for them. The customer has no other option.!!

The CNG gas has the drawback that even big cylinders they claim to carry 14 kg get filled with max 10-11 Kg of gas. That forces one to go to the filling stations often. There are many filling stations in Delhi but they have not kept pace with time and now a days there are big lines at all the stations almost throughout the day.

I hope some action is taken and CNG gets encouraged more. With the increasing petrol prices CNG becomes a better option, but if IGL does not improve its service people will be caught between the fire and the frying pan...

Why it takes so long?

Why it takes so long to construct flyovers and underpasses in delhi. The moolchand underpass has almost take 2 years. The snarlingly slow traffic jams at moolchand are a big pain.

The empire state building with about 100+ floors was completed in one month.

Think Delhi think!!!

Welcome to the Indiapost Web Site

The post office claims to be dealing with the passport applications and i turned out to be one fool to believe them. Tried in 2 big post offices in delhi and both of them said they knew nothing about it. Will delhi wake up???

Read offical announcement at www.indiapost.gov.in/Ne...

Project Why

Project why is doing some good work in Delhi inspite of many odds and challenges. Education can help remove many ills of society and improve delhi, india and the world as a whole. We should all take inspiration and try to join the fight against illiteracy...

Read more at projectwhy.blogspot.com...

DMRC takes private Route

The private public participation is the way to progress. I just hope that more people learn from this. MCD is the one body that i want to be privatized at earliest. It is a big roadblock to development of infra in delhi. We dont have good roads, decent parking, illegal construction....all thanks to MCD.

From walled city to world city

I just noticed this times campaign, though it conveys the optimism but when I see this campaign sitting from New York, I realize how far we still are.

Today I went and saw the Empire state building in New York. I was surprised when I came to know that one the tallest buildings in the world was just erected in One year and forty five days. In Delhi, a small project takes years to complete. Thanks to politics and other 1000 issues..

Delhi needs loads of infra before we can even imagine to be a world city, but I think we have made a start with Metro and newer airport.

mismanagement of garbage in Delhi.

Found this article on a very valid and big problem.. Its time that the whole Garbage and sewer problem in delhi is handled properly to make delhi and the rivers clean.

Accidents and Ambulances

Many a times I see ambulances blaring the horn and trying to get past the heavy traffic. The traffic is so jammed that even if people try they cant give the way. But I see many people whose conscience has died and who knowingly block the way of ambulances.

I hope the time comes when we have the Helicopter ambulance in Delhi. Now a days many people have medical insurance and maybe the high cost can be offset in the insurance policies and premiums.

In accidents crucial minutes can save a life.

With accidents I also recall the many instances when people have died on the road bleeding and nobody cared to call police/drive them to hospital. One of my friends had accident in the night many yrs ago and on reaching the hospital the watch and chain was missing along with the money in the wallet.

In the previous post here Ankur has so very rightly raised a point...

why some people/NGO are trying to start a movement in parallel

The parellel schools also known as Non Formal Education Centers, which were being run by many NGOs untill few days back, now required to be taken away. Education is now a matter of right. Every child in the age group of 6-14 has the fundamental right to education and its the Government's duty to ensure this education. Setting up of NFE centers is rather a hindrance towards obtaining formal education. What is required to be done is rather simple. As Ankur has already expressed, "I hope we the citizens of delhi pick up one school at a time and work on its improvement" we all can do something about it.

The Right to Education Task Force (RETF) is a unit set up by Social Jurist for this purpose. It has helplines to register any complaint relating to violation of Right to education and to provide all possible legal help to such children.

The complaint may be about the problems coming in the way of realization of right to education, absence of government school in the locality, absence of basic physical and academic infrastructure including children with disabilities, absence of quality education, over crowded classrooms, harassment of students/parents, improper behaviour of teachers, illegal monetary demands, pushing out of students, existence of child labour in any of its forms, denial of admission of children of weaker sections under 25% freeship quota by the public schools which have been allotted public land and/or running of seperate school/classes for the children of weaker sections etc.

check out RETF's public notice here

RETF appeals to all the concerned citizens and the Media to volunteer their services to the Task Force in its efforts to eradicate the evil of child labour and to make the fundamental and human right to quality elementary education of the children a reality. The government school system is the only hope for the children of the masses and therefore, it has to be strengthened. The media has a vital role to play and it should start a nation wide campaing in this regard.

RETF helplines 011+23910014, 011+23962257, 011+20600384, 9810085910
Contact Person - Ashok Agarwal, Advocate
9811101923

Government Schools in delhi

The Delhi government apparently has taken out a huge budget for the schools. This is the official site of the department of education delhi.

We all understand how important the education is to remove the many problems of delhi/India. At one hand we have massive population and at other hand the BPO and software industry is short of skilled manpower. Education would provide better avenues to the poor children who generally go to these schools. The department now has a management information system and so the attendance of teachers and the timetable etc is all online and updated regularly. The attempt is being made to improve it.

What i dont understand is why some people/NGO are trying to start a movement in parallel ,,specially in delhi where we already have so many govt schools. The problem i agree is the very lack of infra in these schools. The lack of infra is not because of shortage of funds but because of corruption. I hope we the citizens of delhi pick up one school at a time and work on its improvement. Work on to raise the issues to the right authorities and levels. Expose corruption.. Anybody eating the education fund is committing a great crime against the future of our nation and we should fight for it..

Personally i have also done nothing on this front.,...i wish i could do something,,,get that time and courage and determination...I hope and pray one day i will

Delhi – Ensemble of Power, Culture, Attitude and Modernity

Delhi – Ensemble of Power, Culture, Attitude and Modernity

A nice and exhaustive written article about delhi

Getting a voters I card

I generally try to get the things done online, specially coz its easier and more comfortable. I had to get the voters Icard made and needed the name to be added in the electoral roles. I found the website of the Chief electoral office of Delhi .

I submitted the form online for enrollment. Nothing happened on it for about a month so I sent an email about this to the email id mentioned on the site. I got a prompt reply on it. It took some email exchange to get the officials come out of their official state of mind of trying to postpone things and shifting responsibility to finally take ownership and do something about it. I got a December deadline ( after 2 months date) to expect the enrollment office to come to my place to verify the application form. As I expected nobody came. Finally I emailed again in Jan and to my amazement there was some telephonic enquiry from the election office.

This is a very good response from any government office till date. When I tried to complain in the passport (ministry of external affairs) the things felled on deaf ear. Same happens if you send an email even to the prime ministers office or the department of public grievance and the central vigilance office.

I just hope that more and more of the government offices begin to use and benefit from the power of internet.

I will update more as and when the actual voters card gets made.
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March 25 ,2005

After around more than 6 months the name in the election I card has not been added. I have the application number and emails to prove it. The election machinery seems to badly rusted, specially in delhi.
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2nd Anniversary of Delhi Blogger's Meet

We are celebrating the 2nd Anniversary of Delhi Blogger's Meet on Sunday 29th of January @ Cafe Coffe Day, CP from 4 pm onwards.

We would be discussing the following

1. Blogging viz. Creative Writin
2. Blogging viz. Mainstream Media
3. Blogging viz. Adverstising Tool

If you are a delhi wala who blogs and you want to contribute on any of the above topics we would love to hear from you. All are invited.

For any weird, stupid or silly question that might arise at your mind regarding this meet contact Me at the comments section or write to me personally at samyukta_basu[at]yahoo[dot]com.

Hope to see you all there

Holy Yamuna

Yamuna instead of a river is just a Naala (dirty water drain) in Delhi. I have read about many news over the years on the efforts to clean the Yamuna but don't see any improvements. Yamuna action plan was made by the government to clean the yamuna. What has come out of this plan is still unknown to me. Recently the MCD commented that yamuna cant be cleaned because of so many slum clusters along the yamuna bed and they let all the untreated waste go in the yamuna..I wonder what prevents the MCD from razing those slums??

The dam at kalindi kunj has so many pretty birds in spring, i just wish that Yamuna can be enthused with life again and we get the holy river back with clean water. The government can probably use the yamuna basin to create recreational parks and all and the money generated from there can be used to clean Yamuna..i feel something can be worked out but the willingness and determination of the government is lacking...