City councillors want laptop nannies

• Maria Akram TNN

  New Delhi: Incredible as it may seem, 272 corporators of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi may just have to be given an equal number of laptop operators if members of the BJP — the ruling party in all three newly-formed
  corporations — have their way. It will, of course, mean that apart from the cost of the laptops, the MCD will have to shell out an additional Rs 13.60 lakh a month as compensation for the “computer helps”, each pocketing Rs 5,000 as salary.
  So if you can operate a computer, have five hours to spare a day and are willing to work for a pittance, the MCD may soon have a job opening for you.
  Defending the proposal, the councillors argue that not all of them are tech-savvy. “Not all councillors know how to operate a computer,” says V P Pandey, deputy chairman of the standing committee of the north corporation. “With a login ID, a councillor can access details of agendas, salary and funds on the corporation website. But since not many can access it, some have had to hire private operators.”

  Councillors reject proposal to hand down old computers 
  New Delhi: The three municipal corporations of Delhi may soon have job openings for people in the form of ‘computer helps’.
  In a bid to make it official, councillors say they need the helps to work five days a week, between 9am and 2pm. “These operators will be hired as a ‘helping hand’. We have been demanding for an operator for long and now with BJP ruling all three corporations, this demand will be soon met,” says Mahender Nagpal, leader of the House of the North Delhi Municipal Corporation. “The Delhi government provides an operator to every MLA, who prepares their schedule and keeps them updated. Similarly, councillors should be given a help. This way, they will be able to address public grievances online.”
  But skills or no skills, councillors voted to give themselves the latest laptops and printers, in the last House meeting of all three corporations. “It was suggested that the laptops given to councillors in 2007 could be reused by giving them to newlyelected councillors. But the suggestion was immediately turned down by the newly elected councillors as they wanted new laptops,” said an official who didn’t wish to be named.
  “The laptops that were given to us in 2007 are now outdated and many of them don’t even work,” says Mehek Singh, chairman of the standing committee of the East Delhi Municipal Corporation.

   

   

   

Delhi’ s Water Woes

WATER WASTED IN PARCHED CITY

    Across the city taps are running dry and people are ready to hit the streets in protest, but it hasn’t moved the authorities to plug leakages even as colossal as this one at a spot near the Jasola Metro station at Sarita Vihar. You might not like the sound of this but local residents say water from a broken pipeline has been gushing out in torrents for weeks now — some say two months — forming a pool deep enough for children to dive in and make a big splash. This even as colony after colony just a few kilometres away— Chirag Dilli, Gulmohar Park, Lajpat Nagar, Vasant Kunj — is facing unprecedented water shortages

Erratic water supply gives Delhiites sleepless nights

Durgesh Nandan Jha TNN 

New Delhi: Since one week, Gulmohar Park resident Swati Dasgupta has been waking up around midnight to fill water. If she’s lucky, water trickles in between 12am-2am and she ends up filling a bucket or two, but on other days, Dasgupta, like others in the colony, has to make do with private supply. 
    Residents in several other parts of the city, including East of Kailash, Lajpat Nagar and Janakpuri have been facing a similar problem. Even households in unauthorized colonies and villages, and areas like Chirag Dilli have been receiving an erratic supply of water for over a month. 
    “I have not washed clothes for over a week due to the water shortage. Managing household chores is becoming increasingly difficult,” said Dasgupta, who teaches at Delhi University. She said that earlier there was a fixed time for water supply — 5am — but for the last one month it has been inconsistent. “Sometimes I have to wake up at 2am or 3am. And even after the night’s wait, the water supply is not sufficient. For the last two days, we have not received a single drop,” she said. Dasgupta went to Delhi Jal Board’s RK Puram office on Saturday and had a water tanker sent to her house. 
    Semma Chana, who lives in a narrow lane in Chirag Dilli, is not as lucky as Dasgupta. “More than 700 households have not been receiving water for almost a month. We have met DJB officials and the local councillor several times but to no avail. On Saturday, after we approached MLA Ajay Maken, few officials visited the area but they did not promise anything,” said Chana. 
    Residents of the area held aprotest on Saturday demanding immediate redressal of their problem. Women broke pitchers and shouted slogans against the authorities for meeting out a step-motherly treatment to the locality. “Upmarket colonies surrounding Chirag Dilli get water regularly but we are denied the basic facility,” alleged Dinesh Kumar, a local. 
    Keshav Aggarwal, a social activist, said the problem is not new to parts of Chirag Dilli. “These people are charged no less. Their bills are between Rs 1,000 and Rs 2,000 per month even though there has been negligible supply for the last two months,” he said. Aggarwal said that the problem of faulty bills is also being faced by residents in several parts of the capital including C R Park. 
    Admitting that the city is reeling under a crisis, a senior DJB official said, “Problems like power cuts and technical faults are possible reasons for the complaints”. He added that in unauthorized colonies illegal tapping is rampant due to which houses at the fag end of the supply line do not receive water. “We are trying to sort out the issue,” he said.

 

 

IN UNISON: Residents of Chirag Dilli held a protest on Saturday demanding an end to the water crisis