BANAL: everyday, ordinary, commonplace

SHAME: the  painful  feeling  arising  from  the  consciousness  of  something  dishonourable done  by  oneself  or another

 

Jana gana mana adhinayaka jaya he

An auto-rickshaw and a street hawker’s pushcart as showpieces in the Commonwealth Games Village dining hall

* MCD to raze dhabas on Games route: It doesn’t matter if you are running your business legally or illegally. If your shops fall on the route of a Games event, chances are that you will have to shut shop. A shop and taxi stand in front of Bal Bhawan — which have been running for 20 years — were demolished by MCD on Saturday and the civic agency is planning to raze all dhabas  functioning along the stretch in the coming days even as the dhaba owners claim that they have been paying rent to MCD.

* Delhi street vendors evicted before Commonwealth Games: Every day for the past 30 years, Ram Prakash has been selling fruit in Delhi’s Sarojini Nagar market. He earns between 150 and 200 rupees ($3 and $4) a day, with which he supports the nine members of his family. But now the Indian capital is getting ready to host the 11-day Commonwealth Games in October and Ram Prakash has been told by the civic authorities to pack up and leave.

* Traffic Police To Launch Drive To Discipline Auto-Rickshaw Drivers: The Delhi Traffic Police is in no mood to let the errant auto-rickshaw drivers in the Capital fleece foreign visitors during the Commonwealth Games.

* Auto-drivers must carry roughly sixteen documents with them at all times, including a licence, a commercial badge, vehicle fitness certificate, pollution control certificates for the past year amongst others. To get each compulsory document, the driver must make an application to the Transport Department. However, each application requires a long list of supporting documents (as many as fifteen), which most auto-wallahs simply do not have and have little chance of obtaining: A fifty-year-old driver applying for a commercial badge may be asked for his old school certificates from rural Bihar in the 1960s whilst Delhi ID and ration cards are standard for many applications, documents which migrant drivers do not possess and have virtually no chance of getting. Aware that these requirements are impossible to meet, Transport Department officials solicit bribes from drivers to overlook gaps in applications and often even to process complete applications.

Given the sheer weight of paperwork a driver must carry around and some pedantic traffic rules, the Traffic Police are able to stop an auto-driver at random and find an excuse to challan him retrospectively. The officer simply keeps asking to see documents: he is bound to find one or two which the auto-wallah is missing. If not, then he can issue a challan for “wrong uniform” (including wearing the “wrong socks”), “incorrect lettering on auto” (Rs.1500 challan) or “illegal stopping” (despite the fact that the city’s 312 auto-stands are unmarked and no one knows where they are. Tiny Pune has over 1000 marked stands). Often the challanning officer knocks a few rupees off the challan and pockets the auto-wallah’s money. Simon Harding at kafila.org

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bharata bhagya vidhata…

Conditions at the Commonwealth Games Village

“These rooms are clean to both you and us. However, it may not appear so to some others. They want certain standards in hygiene and cleanliness which may differ from our perception.” (Lalit Bhanot, Games Organizing Committee Secretary-General)

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* Recession Hits Commonwealth Games, Budget To Be Increased In View Of The Financial Crisis: Kalmadi (Jan 06, 2009)
The global economic meltdown has hit the preparation of 2010 Commonwealth Games and Indian Olympic Association president Suresh Kalmadi on Tuesday said the budget for the mega-event will be increased in view of the financial crisis.

* Centre Mulling `Bailout’ For Realtors, Developers And Investors In The Games Village Projects: (January 13, 2009): The government is looking into a monetary mechanism to “bail out” realtors, developers and investors in the Commonwealth Games Village projects, who have been left high and dry post the global financial meltdown.

* Govt treads cautiously on contracts: (February 1, 2009) Eyebrows are being raised in high government circles over several complaints alleging that attempts are being made to influence decisions to award lucrative contracts associated with the 2010 Commonwealth Games to favourites.

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gahe tava jaya-gatha

Workers and families at commonwealth games sites

* Court-appointed committee that visited CWG sites: “Across sites on an average one toilet is available for 114 workers; workers in the absence of adequate number of toilets at sites are forced to defecate in the open…

“At many locations toilets are cleaned only on a weekly or monthly basis and not every day”…

At one Games Village workers’ camp, the committee noted that on average four workers were sharing a 50-square-foot room. “There were no beddings provided except for a plywood [plank]. It is a pity that it is called a bed.”

* Death sparks building worker riot in Delhi:After a fatal accident on the Commonwealth Games construction site more than thousand building workers destroyed company offices, cars and trucks.

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Jana-gana-mangala-dayaka jaya he,

Bharata-bhagya-vidhata

Indian Women’s Relay team at Commonwealth Youth games

* Women hockey players thank ‘whistleblower’: Sometime last week – “after repeatedly hitting a bottleneck as they tried to get their voice heard by the sports ministry” – members of the Indian women’s hockey team made up their mind not to further pursue sexual harassment charges against coach Maharaj Kishan Kaushik. They had instead decided to “reconcile themselves to the situation” and “concentrate on the game.” That is till a “good samaritan” decided to send an anonymous tell-all letter along with unseemly pictures of team videographer Basavaraja to the ministry…

Sunita Lakra, another India player, added her bit by saying, “Ranjita would often break down but we couldn’t do much about it except to tell her to keep concentrating on the game and avoid Kaushik at all cost which was a difficult thing to do since he was the coach. We knew Kaushik was powerful. We knew how he went scot free when Helen Mary had complained against him and Saini. We knew we didn’t have evidence against Kaushik except for us eye-witnesses so when someone posted the letter and the pics, we were more than happy.”

*Malleswari wants IWF secretary sacked: Sydney Olympics bronze medallist Karnam Malleswari on Sunday demanded the sacking of Indian Weightlifting Federation Secretary Sahdev Yadav for not paying heed to her repeated complaints against coach Ramesh Malhotra, who has been suspended on charges of sexually harassing junior lifters.