The biggest promotion in Delhi Police does not warranty any honeymoon in office. Within two weeks of BK Gupta’s accession to the hot seat in November 2010, a BPO employee was gangraped in Dhaula Kuan. In his first month, Gupta’s successor Neeraj Kumar is already feeling the heat after a spate of murders jolted the Capital last week. Shivani Singh writes.
It was a long time coming. Last week, the Punjab and Haryana High court barred the government from issuing fresh licences for construction in Gurgaon unless a developer gave an undertaking that no groundwater would be used for building purpose.
All through this searing summer, we impatiently waited for the rain. But when it finally poured last week, the city came to a standstill. It is the same story every monsoon.
Last week, the government's decision to extend the summer vacation in schools due to excessive heat was a huge respite for many parents. The weather was certainly too hot and humid to ask Delhi's kids to resume their school routine. But their parents were more relived to have a few extra days to complete their children's holiday homework.
Last week, the two-decade-long run of the Blueline buses on Delhi roads came to an end. Except for a few odd bus contractors, nobody complained. After all, these buses had, in their red and blue avatars, killed at least 100 people every year.
Delhi has the most extensive road network in India - 21% of its geographical area is just motorways. Yet, there is not enough space for the traffic. Shivani Singh writes.
Behind every story of deficit, usually lie three more: Of demand, supply and wastage. Delhi needs about 4,200 million litres of water per day. The DJB supplies about 3,150 million litres, up to 40% of which is lost in distribution, resulting in a daily deficit of about 2,300 million litres.
Six years ago, I decided to take a shot at the property market in Delhi before looking out to the NCR for options. I liked a few DDA flats. They were spacious and well located. But built 25-30 years back, they were in such a bad condition that even banks were reluctant to give a 20-year home loan. Shivani Singh writes.
The rescue of 200 people trapped inside the smoke-filled Punjab National Bank at Parliament Street last Wednesday that the news TV channels ran live, was the biggest and the best coordinated operation the Delhi firemen conducted in the past 20 years. Shivani Singh writes.
The one happy memory I have from my childhood is the freedom I had to play from early morning until the streetlights came on. The area I grew up in had more than 30 parks.
In less than a month, the Class XII board results will be out, triggering the annual rat race for college admission. In Delhi’s marks-market dynamics, there are too few good options and too many students applying. Shivani Singh writes.
Under consistent media glare, the gruesome Aarushi Talwar-Hemraj Banjade murder case is still on the public radar. Shivani Singh writes.
With 55% voter turnout, the highest for MCD polls in the last 15 years, Delhi showed unusual enthusiasm last Sunday. But that was not the only thing unusual about these elections. For the first time, Delhi chose among women candidates in half of the constituencies. It was also the first time Delhi voted for three corporations.
Few play baseball in Delhi. There is a club in Rohini but it is rare to find neighbourhood boys playing the American game in the Capital’s colony parks. But most sports stores in the city stock and sell baseball bats every month because it is Delhi’s favourite combat weapon on road. Placed under car seats, it is used to intimidate, thrash or simply smash windscreens for provocation ranging from a minor car-scraping to someone daring to ask for way.
In the debates triggered by the gang rape of a pub escort in Gurgaon last fortnight, solutions got lost in the shrillness of who was to be blamed for this horrific crime. Was it the urban-rural cultural clash? Or a law that merely asks employers to provide a night-drop to women who work late? Or was it a plain policing failure?