An Indian Diplomat has been caught working as a mole in Pakistan. As per the report by one of the leading English news channels “Times Now” Madhuri Gupta posted as 2nd Secretary level Diplomat, Press & Information Wing, Indian High Commission in Islamabad was passing sensitive information to Pakistan Information passed was related to India’s strategic interest. The lady officer has been swaying off the information for around two years. The Lady Officer is detained & questioned in India after being brought back to India in the guise of needing her for the SAARC summit.

The Common Wealth Games are going to start this year in October 2010. It is changing everyone’s live in the capital. Somethings are getting better and somethings are getting worse. One of the badly affecting things is animals’ life.

There was a rally held in Defence of Animals at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi, on April 24, 2010 from 4.30pm to 9pm. This rally was mainly focused on the violation of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act of 1960 and other laws in force in the country.

A number of municipal bodies capture stray dogs in the most cruel manner. It causes serious injuries to them. They are either killed or released outside the city. They die a horrible death there because of unfamiliar to the area and they don’t know where to find food. They are also killed by local dogs.

The rally was focused on five specific issues:

1. The need to give a massive, countrywide boost to the canine birth control program – the only effective method of sharply reducing the presence of stray dogs in streets and public places, and the provision of enough funds for expanding infrastructure, training personnel and meeting all other expenses connected with the program.
2. The need for strong and effective action against illegal slaughter houses.
3. The need for strict implementation of Cattle/Livestock Transport Rules.
4. The prevention of atrocities on street animals and the promotion of the emerging trend toward people taking to feeding and/or caring from them.
5. The need for strong police action against people who assault, harass, abuse or intimidate those feeding and taking care of stray animals.

Spilled Garbage, Gate No. 3, Patiala House

The garbage is spilled all over but not in dustbin. I had clicked this picture just outside the Patiala House Court where rules are made but not followed.

A few days ago the Chief Minister of Delhi Ms. Sheila Dikshit had stated that the people of Delhi are to be blamed for the traffic jams in the city. She isn’t entirely wrong, when she makes such statements. We all have the tendency to break the rules for our convenience whether on the road or off the road.

Traffic Jam at ITO

Don’t we break the lane system? This is one of the most common forms of traffic violations. It may also be possible that many of us don’t even know the lane system means or what the signboards on the road stand for. We just change the lanes with least respect for other vehicles on the road. We never hesitate to overtake other vehicles from left side, which is illegal too.

Don’t we block the left turn even when it’s free? It’s something which we often encounter on Delhi roads and I’m certain that it’s an experience that holds good in most other Indian cities – the pride with which drivers block the free left turn, when they have to go straight. We just block the left lane in the sake of reaching ahead of the race. But we forget that it’s a road not a racing track. It stops the flow of traffic and more & more vehicles add to the jam.

Don’t we park at the tow away zones or near red lights? On my way home from office, there is a red light in the end of Siri fort road. Almost every day, two-three cars are always parked just before the red light and it makes that road more congested. Also people block the road on the left lane even when the signal is green for left turn.

Don’t we stop or slowdown our vehicles outside worship places? I often go to my office via Lodhi Road and I always know that I will reach late on Thursdays because Sai Baba’s temple is there. We stop our vehicles outside the temple and touch the road or bow to get the blessings of baba. But it occurs to none, the inconvenience that others might experience because of this.

A two-wheeler rider outside a temple

Don’t we go towards wrong side or take illegal U-turns?

We all can contribute to reduce traffic jams by following rules. All these efforts may not solve this problem completely but it will certainly help. And no one will be able to blame us. Whenever we are stuck in a traffic jam, we should think of all those instances when we have broken these rules and contributed to Traffic Jams.

A rare sight in India, all the vehicles have stopped before the stop line

Please share your suggestions to reduce traffic jams in the comment box below.

PS: In the next part, I will try to point the areas where government is found faulty or can extend its influence to curb jams.

I clicked these pictures at Chawri Bazar. Hats-off to these guys. They were propagating the information about TB and DOTS by distributing brochures. It was a small road show. We should learn the spirit from them.

DOTS - Sure cure for TB

For more information on TB visit http://www.tbcindia.org.

Much has been said, and much has been claimed and in the midst of this chaos, the simple truths were forgotten and overlooked. Every year, as the monsoon arrives, life is plagued by multiple woes; starting from water logging to various other issues. And as the monsoon clouds disappear, so is the common man’s angst against the MCD. However, one that is perennial, unlike the monsoon is the smelling garbage truck that you often end up following on your way to work, shards of decomposed stink flying from its coverless garbage. Several years ago, the Chief Minister of Delhi had made it mandatory for all garbage trucks to cover the waste with a canvas or a tarpaulin and to have more number of covered garbage trucks. But sadly enough, this isn’t the only promise that vanished into thin air. We can still see the trucks full of awful smelling garbage plying either uncovered or covered with a tattered polythene sheet or few sacks.

Uncovered garbage truck

The problem doesn’t end here only. Walk down the roads of any colony and one common sight is either the overflowed garbage bin or huge area of spilled rags, attracting the stray dogs, pigs, scavengers, mosquitoes.etc.

Spilled garbage on the road

It was said that there will be a pair of dustbin of different colors so that the garbage can be segregated into bio-degradable & non-degradable stuff and dumped accordingly. We can see these dustbins at some places but it remains questionable about the rate of their success. The lack of awareness is one of the major reasons for this.

The problem is that the civic body creates rules but hardly does anything to follow those rules or they make sure they are followed. The Kuda wala’s who come to our doorstep they also do not segregate the degradable and non-degradable stuff. In fact even if we keep them separate, they mix those and dump at the same place. Nobody is there to get hold of these people creating mess like overcharging, not collecting garbage from houses on regular basis and so on.

When we do not like litters inside our house then we should also make sure the surrounding of our house is clean. It is our civic and moral responsibility to maintain cleanliness both inside and outside the house. In fact if we can be conscientious to stop others from making our surrounding dirty, it will be easier for us to maintain cleanliness.

Charity begins at home. So if we the readers of this article start the practice and encourage other, which I am sure most of us will, then many others will also join us. Why not live in a beautiful and clean city & be proud of it, rather than regretting upon the fact that the city is dirty and we have to live with it. Let’s own this city for once.

Click to enlarge

We at WECONSCIOUS wish our readers a very happy and prosperous New Year 2010. Weconscious resolute for working towards it’s motto to make people conscious of things happening around them.

We would like to recall posts through which we have tried to create awareness:

• Wastage of food in weddings
• Roads for 21st Century Delhi
• Terrorist attacks & We the people
• 11 things we should not do at traffic signal
• Yeh Dilli hai meri jaan
• Safe Pedestrian Drive by Delhi Traffic Police
• How Racist are We?
• Swine Flu: Symptoms, Precautions & Treatment Centers
• Escalators in Delhi Metro
• MRP – an essential information for packaged goods
• Homosexuality and our society

Winter is also known as the season of marriages in several sub-Indian cultures. Come winter, and the roads are flanked by coloured lights and processions of dancing people. Our houses are filled with invitation cards, party clothes, clashing dates and the best of food.

We all have attended Indian wedding parties but how many of us realize how much food goes into waste during such parties? There are no official or unofficial estimates, even though we unanimously agree that wastage can be unimaginably massive. Here are a few tips to minimize, if not stop wastage completely during Indian weddings.

1. Since most weddings are turning into buffet system, it’s the responsibility of the guest to help the size of the servings according to their apetite.
2. If you aren’t sure, which dish you are actually going to eat; take spoonfulls of each to taste and decide, instead of filling the plate with every dish.
3. Many Indian weddings have gone completely vegeterian and there are others, which serve both vegeterian and non-vegeterian dishes. It is our responsibility to fill our plates according to our eating habits. Its sheer waste to fill one’s plates with dishes that we do not eat, only to realize later and discard the food in the bins.

Wasted food in the bin

No matter how much noise we make about the economic development in India, we can never deny the fact that India also hosts one of the biggest armies of starving people in the world. The food that we waste will inevitably land in the garbage bins. But if we play our roles a little carefully and take only as much as we intend to eat, the saved food will find its way into the empty stomach of those, who cannot afford to fill theirs.

Photo by: locket479

The delight in Europe has a great deal to do with clean air, non-interfering people, healthy food, great shopping centers, winter style for women, etc. But one of the most important elements, lest it be forgotten, is that most of them are ‘walking cities’. Almost every city in Europe has pedestrian walks and cyclist’s lane alongside the main road. ‘Walking cities’ are easy to cover on foot, usually there is a single centre located in every city, well connected by roads and efficient public transport systems, therefore the sprawl of the city as such is hardly much.

On the other hand in the United States, especially cities like New York, the distances between two parts are vast, but these are covered by a very efficient metro system, that runs 24/7 come sleet, come snow storms, thanksgiving or Christmas. This is also true for all buses which run on schedule and make it easy for those waiting to time themselves accordingly. In New York, there exists a single swipe card which works for both bus rides and metro rides. These can be purchased for a nominal price every month/week/annual depending on needs.

Recently, Chennai, India, saw the visit of Enrique Peñalosa–former Mayor of Bogotá, who works for the institute for transportation Development and Policy. According to him, “the biggest difference between the infrastructure of an advanced and a backward state is its footpaths and not its highways. The quality of footpaths determines the quality of life in a city.”

Delhi does not have too many footpaths yet there are numerous pedestrians. There are no cyclist lanes. The roads are spacious, but they seem to be shrinking everyday. There are separate bus lanes but very often the bus systems do not keep to them. Yet, one can see stupendous efforts to make Delhi dependent on public transport. The metro construction is going on 24/7 to meet the challenge of the commonwealth games. Numerous highways/flyovers are being designed with the aim of reducing bottlenecks in key areas and wherever new roads are being built a pedestrian lane is provided. In fact, some parts of Delhi have also started the Swipe card system for buses as well. New Delhi cannot hope to become a ‘walking city’– its impossible to imagine anyone walking from South/East Delhi to the Center (Connaught Place). However, greener spaces, parks, an efficient and reliable transport system and more sidewalks will help both Delhiites and foreigners explore parts of this gorgeous city and hopefully make it a delightful experience as well.

“We have evidence, we have the culprit, and we have the witnesses………..but what we don’t have is the justice.”

Pragnya P Mohanty

Every time we suffer at the hands of terrorist, our suffering is instant and continues forever, because we are the public. What follows after such attacks is en-cashing of such incidents. Starting from politicians who use such incidents as a medium for votes and earning through the aids coming from various sources. In this the NGO’s also benefit quite a lot. Then it’s the media. They make sure to get each and every profit out of it, not only immediately but also a year after. They use the sentiments of general public to gain the huge revenue that flows in.

After every attack it’s said Delhi’s Spirit, Mumbai’s spirit etc. etc. But what choice the general public has other than moving on. We are bound to move on since we don’t have the choice. We know we are not going to get any protection and nothing concrete is going to be done. All the security and alertness is for a few days. Once the things start cooling down, all the security and checking in the public places are done just for the sake of formality only, traffic police officer talking on mobile phone while managing traffic at signals, security officer sipping tea & police officer dozing off at the check post are some of the common sights.

Taj Hotel under fire after terrorist attack

Photo by: Priyam Dhar

Government spending some crores per year which comes to around some lakhs per day to protect the terrorists like Ajmal Kasab, 26/11 terrorist attack captured in Mumbai attack, is a shame. Why so much farce of justice when we know what was the truth. He killed people mercilessly, openly and we are giving him more than a VIP’s treatment. For his medical treatment expensive Doctors are called in. What about those who suffered because of him? How much is government spending for those people? What have the victims like some of those kids who either lost a limb or gravely injured in some or the other form due to these terrorist attacks, got from government? We need justice in this as well. Don’t be unjust to the innocents and just to those merciless killers.

Mumbai terrorist attack accused Ajmal Amir Kasab

We are no more ready to forget and forgive such inhuman acts.

Amitabh Bachchan’s comment on Kasab