Delhiites don’t know traffic rules. They don’t know how to drive or cross a road and they don’t know how to use water judiciously. This is what our minsters feel.
A fortnight after the BRT trial run began and the government failed to clean up the mess, the ministers are busy finding faults with the commuters. On Wednesday, Delhi Chief Secretary Rakesh Mehta said, Delhiites don’t know how to drive. They need to be taught traffic rules.” When MetroNow asked what prompted him to say so, he said: “I meant what I said. Watch television to know what I said.”
Central Water Resources Minister Saifuddin Soz also did not spare the Delhiites said people waste too much water and that there is no shortage of water in the city. Now just imagine!
Even as the opposing BJP has found something to react to and are criticising our government for projecting their inefficacy as people’s folly, we have a question for our reader. How do you think can we teach Delhiites to conserve water? And what should be done to infuse traffic sense in Delhiites? Do write in with your suggestions.
4 Comments
May 8, 2008 at 1:52 pm
It is true what the government officials have said. We cannot solely blame the government for the wrong conduct. Somwhere down the lane we all are to blame. We all look forward to and want to drive safely and want the traffic to be smooth. But do we realise that when we are the pedestrian we ourselves break rules which we would have otherwise sweared at. I have thought about it agian and again and still have not sought a way out thinking that when we see a rickshaw in front of our car we tend to scream and yell at him whereas when we are the ones travelling on the rickshaw we tend to tell him to ride us fast or whatever. So guess who is to blame here?
May 8, 2008 at 5:42 pm
Yes i do agree what the government spoke about the citizens. I don’t say we are totally responsible but till a limit. As there are various ways that we can solve the problem. First i would like to talk about conserving water. People can store water in their houses rather shouting and blaming the government that the water is unable in the area. Those citizens are getting water at least, there are many places yet where water is not available. Yes i would like to blame the central water department that half of the water just flows out of the road so, i think the citizens living in the area would get approximately half of the water of the total amount. The people either can make a storage for water so that people in need of it can take through hand pumps and utilize it but properly. There are vary basic but important things that a person should do in order to conserve water such as closing the tap when not in use. I saw people doing brush in the morning having the tap opened. As I talk about traffic most of the traffic jams are created by our self. As i have observed whenever there is a traffic light the driver’s ahead of me just cross the zebra cross and stand with the vehicle where the road ends. I also have many times seen that when a car stops due to any reason whether it is an engine failure or a tyre burst in the middle of the road then the drivers just don’t give any indication. If he wont indicate then how can the other drivers differentiate whether its the car stopped due to a reason. Thus because of us most of the traffic jams occur then why would we blame the government for our mistake. I do agree that most of the traffic jams are due to the trucks and that carry goods. The government should take step on this. Its just because of the negligence of the drivers the traffic jams occurs. It can only be prevented if the drivers follow the traffic rules properly and follow the rules laid by the traffic department.
May 9, 2008 at 7:17 am
First let us accede to the case of the lack of driving sense in the people.
I’d like to ask how many people in the metropolis have obtained a driving license by giving a proper examination.
A few days back when I was planning to get a learner’s license, my associates gave me the suggestion to shell out about 1500 bucks & obtain the license by just an obligatory visit to the licensing office for 15 minutes.
But I opted to give the “normal” way a try. On the D-day, even after 2 hours standing in the queue I noticed I had just crossed the length of a door! There was speculation that the officers were busy with the applications of their acquaintances first! Amidst the entire agonizing wait, I was observing a number of people who appeared to the well-known to the officers as well as some cops liberally entering the chamber and coming out with a license in 5 minutes flat!
It took me about 4 hours to eventually reach the counter & a good 5 hours to leave the office. People were literally pushed away if there happened to be some discrepancy in the form, & they would actually have to come back to the office the next day to start all over again!
As an outcome of such a harrowing experience, I noticed only those people were in the line who probably couldn’t afford to pay 1500 rupees or didn’t have an acquaintance.
A person who was just before me had passed all the tests, but just at the final jiffy some officer noticed an incongruity in his higher secondary mark sheet & eventually he acknowledged he wasn’t even an undergraduate & couldn’t read or write either Hindi or English. I wondered how many such people in the city would be blissfully riding around in their cars & cursing the traffic sense of the people around them. How can we expect people to even read the road signage!
Coming to the water concern, keeping the tap open is a common issue by now. But the most outlandish thing one can ever notice is the people’s fancy of using a pipe to wash their cars & even more ludicrously the roads in front of their houses! I am actually infuriated on the callousness of such people, who then habitually blame the Jal Board for the lack of “adequate” water in their household.
Concluding, I am compelled to make a statement that Indians think excessively big, utter excessively big, but actually commit too little to improve the city!
Shouvanik Dey
Delhi
May 14, 2008 at 11:49 am
I fully agree with the Central Water Resources minster Saifuddin Soz that Delhiites waste too much water resulting in water shortage every summer.
But is the public alone responsible? I think not. Last summer there was a major leakage in one of our colonies underground pipes, on informing MCD we were told that it was the job of DJB. On calling DJB we were asked questions like : If it was a fresh water pipe that was leaking ? or if it was a sewage line? They wanted all this information so that they could send the correct authorised persons to look into the problem. For that they needed details as both sewage and fresh water pipes are tended to by different departments. For three days both MCD and DJB tried to push the responsibility onto each other, while all this time precious water was being wasted. Does anybody really care?
Due to lack of drinking water people get illegal water connections for which once again a government servant working in the water connection department is responsible. People like us with proper water meter are harassed every month with jacked up water bills anywhere between Rs.1400 to Rs 2000 while others pay only Rs.100 per month.
During peak summer months many colonies in Delhi suffer, with taps running dry, for days. Water tankers are no doubt available with DJB, but at a price. More over even during water crisis the tankers are filled to the brim and their mouths left open, so even a slight jerk results in overflow and wastage of water. Does this, Mr. Minister not tantamounts to wastage of water ?
So to sum it up Delhis water crisis is mainly due to absence of accountability between its governing authorities and lack of responsibility of Delhiites