Delhi Underground

Delhi’s water woes
As the Delhi Jal Board is all set to almost double the price of water,a comparative analysis by the DJB officials reveals that Delhi consumes much more water than any other city in the country. “The per capita consumption in Delhi is quite high as tariff is very low. This does not discourage usage or avoid wastage,” said a senior official. Officials reason that the revised tariff will be progressive in approach and the poor will not be adversely hit by the hike. “Even as the price to be paid becomes directly proportional to consumption,consumers will get incentives for saving and consuming less water,” said DJB CEO Ramesh Negi. 

Bitter pill
Staffers of a city court recently got a taste of their own medicine when an additional chief metropolitan magistrate directed them to write a complaint against themselves. After finding severe discrepancies between a status report and its photocopy — one bore a date while the other did not — the court had first called upon the investigating officer to explain. It was,however,subsequently revealed that someone from the court (not the police officer) was responsible for the manipulation. The judge at Karkardooma then ordered one of his staff to register a private complaint that would now be formally looked into.

Cross connection
Delhi Police Anti-Extortion Cell is struggling with a case of wrong telephone number — and they are the victims. Around three months ago,the Delhi Police Anti-Extortion Cell was allotted the number,which was earlier NACO’s AIDS helpline number. Since then every third call the police department received related to AIDS. Helpless,they could only up the publicity for the new number and hope that things would change. It has taken more than two and a half months for those wanting to complain to the police about extortion to outnumber the AIDS calls.

Tech challenged
Having awarded the tender for upgradation of its e-governance system,the Municipal Corporation of Delhi is gearing up for a “tech savvy future”. One of the ideas that the Corporation came up with included giving Blackberry devices to councillors and executives in all departments. Currently,junior engineers who are always in the field are issued Blackberries to register complaints and submit a report on the action-taken online. However,considering the confusion that resulted after the MCD gave laptops to councillors and their consequent demand for assistants to operate the laptops,the MCD House took no chances this time and struck off the idea.

Gifted speaker
When Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit called the Delhi Metro’s Noida Line a ‘gift to the people of Delhi and Noida’,reporters pointed out her gift package also included a fare hike. Switching her stance,Dikshit then termed the Line as a ‘return gift’ to the people.