The Hindu : New Delhi News : Inside Delhi

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 08, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Inside Delhi

Building bridges

Pakistan is the flavour of the season and the diplomacy seems to extend not just to the cricket ground or the corridors of power, but even doctors across the borders who are busier than usual building bridges of love and co-operation.

Initiating diplomacy with a difference, the Association of Pakistani Physicians of North America and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) are organising a visit of about 250 Pakistani physicians to India, beginning March 8.

The main purpose of this visit titled "Building Bridges, People to People through Medicine" is to exchange information on the latest developments in India, Pakistan and the world around.

Welcoming the group to the Capital would be the Chairman and Managing Director of Escorts Group, Rajan Nanda, who would be inaugurating the interaction and the international medical conference at Hotel Intercontinental in New Delhi.

Speaking about what the doctors would be getting out of this interaction, the organisers said: "This would give an opportunity for the Pakistanis to update themselves about the advancements in various fields as part of continuing medical education. The interaction offers a platform for the doctors to get to know each other and they would then be travelling to Mumbai and then maybe even to Agra and Jaipur.''

And though a trip to Mohali isn't really on the cards, it sure would be a perfect antidote for any travel fatigue!

Road discipline needed

It is ironical that while the traffic rules are applicable to all the motorised vehicles, the animal-driven vehicles and those pulled physically by human beings are covered under the municipal rules, whereas pedestrians are completely left out of the purview of any regulation when they are both the largest users of roads and also the biggest victims of road accidents.

In such a scenario, what is witnessed on the roads is utter chaos. And while across the country the situation is pathetic as there is virtually no road discipline, Delhi is only marginally better. The efforts that go into making the traffic disciplined are at the most only piecemeal as the traffic police personnel struggle to keep the motorised vehicles under check while having almost no power to deal with animal driven vehicles or those pulled by human beings.

But while the traffic police manage both these categories of "vehicles" by banning their entry on major roads and certain parts of the city, or curbing their entry during particular hours of the day, when it comes to checking the movement of pedestrians they unfortunately fail to perform adequately.

While a large number of traffic furniture is aimed at regulating the movement of pedestrians and one finds zebra crossings, pelican lights, traffic islands, road dividers and traffic signals installed at various places for the purpose, still people can be seen running across the road, alighting from and getting on to public transport vehicles right on the middle of the streets and even walking along the fast lane of important avenues.

Worse still, while crores of rupees are spent on construction of subways and overhead bridges, even in a place like Connaught Place -- where the subways are absolutely safe and hygienic for use -- one finds many lazy souls preferring to run across the road above instead.

With this kind of impropriety assuming alarming proportions, it would be only in the fitness of things that laws are legislated for regulating and disciplining the pedestrians who should also be severely penalised for violations. For why should a rule only apply to a person while he is driving and not when he is on foot?

Homeless `mahapanchayat'

A large number of homeless persons collected at the Yamuna Pushta shelter recently to narrate their bitter experiences of life on the Capital's streets. The occasion was Mahapanchayat-2005 (mass gathering) where the homeless persons also got an opportunity to prepare a charter of demands to be presented to the Government.

Gauhar Neesha, who was left in the lurch after her husband divorced her, said homeless women were easy targets. "Besides being subjected to mental trauma, they are also physically abused. Then there is the fear of their children getting kidnapped by unscrupulous elements. Scarcity of food is another worrying factor," added Ms. Neesha.

While a young lad, Harish, insisted that Government should ensure the fundamental right to education to all street children, an elderly man, Ramakant Shastri, emphasised the need to extend the benefit of pension to old homeless persons.

Quamrul Haq expressed concern over the harassment meted out to those living on the streets by the law enforcers. "The police beat up homeless people in the middle of the night as they hold them responsible for any crime that occurs in their area. Lately I have seen an attitudinal change among policemen as they are behaving in a humanitarian manner with the homeless."

Organised by the Aashray Adhikar Abhiyan, the main demand raised by the homeless persons was to convert temporary shelters into permanent ones and opening up of government schools as night shelters.

Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar and Madhur Tankha

By Bindu Shajan Perappadan, Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar and Madhur Tankha

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