Delhi underground

Who’s to blame?

Delhi Metro officials recently encountered a unique complaint — some daily commuters complained that the food in their lunch boxes was getting spoiled due to exposure to the X-rays in the scanning machines. Officials conducted checks on the machines and after confirming that they were not responsible for food going bad,DMRC has now put up notices at Metro stations denying the fact. The notice also says one should not put water bottles inside the machine. Asked if the X-rays could spoil water,an official said it was water that could spoil the machine.  

Entry restricted

While it took almost three years for the Cyber Regulations Appellate Tribunal (CRAT) to get a new office and a courtroom,it appears that its staff needs more time to begin treating it like a regular court. A recent visit to the CRAT in Connaught Place revealed that entering the tribunal was not easy. Access to the tribunal was controlled by rope barricades and its doors were locked from inside. The staff member who opened the door,however,said he had no idea that entry was restricted. The building’s estate manager,meanwhile,said he had no instructions regarding the court’s entry. As for the locked doors,a senior CRAT official said somebody had “inadvertently” put the latch on. “The court is yet to become fully functional,” he said. 

Money on tracks

After the DJB launched a special drive in April to rein in the defaulters with illegal connections,the agency discovered that the Indian Railways owes them money to the tune of Rs 52 crore. While the Railways continues to deny the charge and insists the figures quoted by the Jal Board are not correct,DJB officials say negotiations are on. As compared to last year,the DJB has shown an increase of Rs 30 crore in its revenue collection this year by just acting tough on defaulters. 

Wait for your turn

Bureaucrats and politicians working from the Delhi Secretariat got a taste of common man’s life this week. With only one of the 12 lifts functioning,the VIPs had to wait for their turn. While most of the bureaucrats waited,the cronies of certain ministers made people get out of the lift journey so that the ministers could have the entire lift to themselves.

No water? Blame discoms

While harassed citizens try to tackle the dual demon of water and power crises,the Delhi Jal Board has blamed discom BSES for the lack of water supply in the Capital. With the total production from various water treatment plants (WTPs) dwindling from around 685 to 700 million gallons per days (MGD),against a total capacity of 740 MGD,top DJB officials have expressed anger against BSES for failing to provide enough electricity to run the WTPs. “If the Sonia Vihar plant shuts down for 45 minutes due to power failure,it clearly means a loss of 10 MGD,which affects supply to South Delhi and parts of East Delhi,” a senior official of the DJB said.

Offence the best defence

Unhappy with your boss? Try the Lokayukta route for grievances. Recently a suspended engineer of the Delhi State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation complained that the former MD of DSIIDC Jalaj Shrivastav forged a food bill worth Rs 1,500. The complainant alleged that Shrivastav has earned a lot of money through illegal means during his posting as MD,though this was the only piece of evidence he could garner. The complaint was dismissed. But not before Shrivastav gave an explanation.  

Is it God’s fault?

As waterlogging following the heavy rains last month brought the city to a standstill,the Municipal Corporation of Delhi saw most fingers pointing at itself. The civic body,however,has surfaced from this problem untainted. The MCD claimed that the desilting work for this year was completed before the downpour and preparations were on for the next monsoons. The chaos occurred,however,due to untimely rains,MCD claimed. “MCD always gets the flak for missing deadlines and being unreliable. But you can’t blame us,when you can’t even trust the rain god,” said a senior official. Raj Niwas officials confirmed that MCD’s tall claims actually stood tall this time as a survey of the areas that reported waterlogging indicated that they came under NDMC,PWD and DDA,and none under MCD.

Putting lie detector to test

Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Director Ashwani Kumar,while explaining the effectiveness of lie-detector tests,narrated his story to journalists,about how he checked if the machine was effective. Kumar related that he had gone for a lie detector test with his mind made up that he would say his wife’s name was ‘Madhuri’. “I thought I would tell a lie. And I was immediately caught by the machine. My wife’s name is not Madhuri,” he said.