Delhi underground : A touch of good health(care)

For the inspector’s eyes only

There are several private higher education institutes in Delhi,but little is known about their quality of education and infrastructure. A professor,who was part of inspection tours conducted by GGSIPU to ensure quality standard in the 100-odd institutions affiliated to it,threw some light on the strange ways in which some private institutions bend the rules. “Once on the way to an inspection,trucks passed by right in front the team’s car carrying chairs,tables,computers and what not. It was also on its way to the institution we were to inspect that day…When we reached the college,we found the cargo arranged in the classrooms. We filed our reports and left. As we left,the truck also left,taking the chairs and tables back to where they had come from,” he said.

Do not want to be bound by duty

With civic election a week away,government officials are trying all means to ensure that they are exempted from the election duty. For the purpose,an official approached his contacts in the office of a Union minister. Convinced with his plea,the minister reportedly called up the State Election Office to cancel the duty of the officer concerned. “It is so strange that we are getting calls from all corners to exempt so and so from the election duty. They are citing all sorts of excuses,” said an election official. He gave the example of a woman who refused to do the election duty saying “she has never done election duty in her life”.

Drink driving penalty leads to happier home

A few days ago,the wife of a senior bureaucrat visited Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Satyendra Garg to thank him. She told Garg that her husband had a weakness for alcohol and would often drive home drunk. She would worry for him as he often lost his way,while returning from parties and would call her for directions. She said she was worried that some day he would meet with an accident. But ever since the Delhi Traffic Police started to prosecute and book offenders for drink driving,the bureaucrat stopped drinking at parties. When he does,he always has a driver around. Now,she can peacefully sleep at night without worrying about her husband.

New ways to old methods

Students at JNU have had a trademark form of student activism,the hunger strike. More often than not,whenever a political issue is raised in the campus,students try to force their decision by going on an “indefinite” hunger strike. During such strikes students camp in the parking lot of the administration building. While the number of students on strike is usually the same — 30 — the students change everyday,taking turns to go on “relay hunger strike”.

Power of the press

When a three-day-old baby was found abandoned at a Greater Noida bus stop,it was a big story for the local media. Especially,in the light of the news that baby at the AIIMS Trauma Centre made in Delhi. The baby was found the night before Mahavir Jayanti,a government holiday. The district hospital,where the baby was recuperating,was,therefore,closed for OPD patients and only the emergency wing was open. The guards at the entrance were instructed to only let in those persons who belonged to the media. Soon,however,a group of people breezed past the guards claiming to be from the press. It was a while before the guards caught on that they weren’t mediapersons,and asked all to show their identity cards.