Delhi Underground

Thought counts
While the rest of Delhi is putting away their woollens and donning sunglasses,the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has sanctioned money to buy woollen monkey caps for its 10 lakh school students. The money was supposed to be sanctioned during the winter,but got delayed. Nevertheless,now that the money has been finally sanctioned,all MCD schoolchildren will get the stipulated amount to buy the caps,i.e.,if they manage to find caps in the markets at this time of the year.

Trump card
Amid all the sound and fury of implementing the semester system at Delhi University,one trend has become clear: all is not lost as long as the English Department stands firm. This is because English is taught to each and every undergraduate student,and without it,the semester system falls. This was evident last week when,at a General Body Meeting (GBM),teachers of the Political Science department became the first to agree to teaching in the semester mode. The campaign against the semester system surely took a beating,but no alarm bells went off. The GBM of the English department is yet to come,they say. And like a good potboiler,the department is keeping everyone waiting and guessing by not announcing the date of the crucial meeting.

Changing rules
The CBSE issued a circular to all its affiliated schools last week,which stated — much to the confusion of everyone concerned— that formative assessments (FAs) in classes IX and X need not be assessed,and may be used for teaching. The circular read,“It is to be borne in mind that all Formative Assessment tasks need not be meant for assessment. Some may be used purely for teaching and some for assessment.” Teachers who already are facing difficulties assessing co-scholastic areas (that FAs are supposed to evaluate) are not too happy. “It is getting difficult to understand. Sometimes the CBSE says FAs are to be evaluated; at other times it says they are to be used for teaching and not necessarily for assessment,” a teacher complained. For the CBSE,the proverbial initial hiccups never seem to end.

On way out
While the date for wrapping up the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee (OC) nears,its employees,it seems,wish to linger on. S P S Dhillion,who had served as the second-in-command in the Indian Army,was asked to leave in February. Instead,he threatened to sue the OC,claiming his contract laid it down that he needs to be served a month’s notice. Dhillion was Kalmadi’s Man Friday and was assigned key work during the CWG. Now,to make sure that employees whose contracts are being terminated are aware of it,OC officials have pasted a list of them on each floor in the lift lobby.

Tough posting
MCD councillors are gunning for Amiya Chandra — the officer in charge of toilet-cum-cafe project,who also conceived it. The project fell flat on its face after many Residents’ Welfare Associations objected to the blocks,calling them ugly. MP Ajay Maken was one of the first persons to have written to the Lieutenant-Governor against the project. Much before the debate on the aesthetics of the project began,Chandra had moved out of the MCD to join the Commerce ministry. Now,he is once again on the move and is expected to join as the director in the Sports ministry — incidentally,with Maken as his boss.

Excess baggage
While security agencies say the direct baggage check-in facility on the Airport Express Metro Line will take more than three months to be made available,there is another important issue that is delaying the facility. The two private operators involved — Reliance Infrastructure for the Metro line and the GMR group-backed Delhi International Airport Limited for the IGI Airport — are now debating over profit-sharing for the service. If a passenger checks in his baggage at the Metro station itself,GMR would stand to lose out on the revenue generated if the passenger checks in at the airport. The modalities are being worked out right now.