Saturday, May 02, 2015

Can the Delhi government arrest trees?

When the top news is about a baby girl born to Prince William and Kate Middleton then it is a very quiet day indeed. Who are they? William is the grandson of Elizabeth II, the present Queen of so called Great Britain who may become Queen of England if the Scottish National Party wins a landslide in the parliamentary elections to be held on 7 May. However, India is never without news, even if some of it is hard to understand. Seems that Delhi police is keeping a keen eye on all the trees in the city. What crime have the trees committed? It is because a farmer, called Gajendra Singh from Rajasthan hanged himself during a speech by the Chief Minister of Delhi at a political rally by the Aam Aadmi Party. Why he did it is still a mystery but the Chief Minister immediately blamed the police for not climbing the tree to stop the farmer killing himself and used it to score a political point by claiming that the police should not be under control of the central government. Are police in any part of the world expected to be experts at climbing trees and how are they supposed to do so in full uniform? Perhaps the Chief Minister is not aware that rescuing people from heights is the duty of the fire service. The police have blamed AAP members for inciting the farmer to commit suicide. With each side blaming the other the poor trees, unable to defend themselves, are under surveillance. The Lieutenant Governor of Delhi has instructed the Delhi Development Authority not to install lifts or elevators in buildings which have illegal construction by the residents. Each apartment building constructed by the DDA has 4 floors and no lifts. Most of these were allotted in the 1980s and 90s whose residents are now becoming old. For those living in the upper floors climbing up and down is becoming a painful problem. Trouble is that all buildings have illegal constructions in them. Every resident has covered his balconies and owners of the top floors have constructed 3-4 rooms on the roof, which is public space. With so much extra weight on buildings the earthquake risk has increased dramatically as the foundations may not be adequate. The government should ban sale of any apartment with illegal construction unless it is removed. That will force residents to break illegal constructions, making buildings safer. A former officer of the Central Bureau of Investigation, Niraj Kumar has revealed that the criminal, Dawood Ibrahim wanted to surrender to the police but his offer was not taken up. He is now running his businesses from Karachi, protected by the Pakistanis. Naturally, lots of Indian politicians were his friends and do not want him to spill the beans. So Dawood Ibrahim remains free while poor trees are under suspicion. Isn't it fun to be Indian?

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