Road to Commonwealth-I

Just returned from troubled waters and dilli’s woeful roads; as a dilliwallah I often boast about wide and superb roads in dilli but deep down I know that these maze of roads linked politicians office and home and other power brokers. Roads elsewhere and everywhere are distant cousins of rich-roads and a repeat source of wealth and employment for these roads are repeatedly raped by different civic agencies and contractors; frequent digging and covering up never ceases to amaze me. Come rainy season, traffic comes to a standstill and in many pockets cars and buses float and then starts shifting of blame between civic agencies. The commonwealth project has added more spice to dilli roads; dilliwallas are enjoying deadly mocktail of rain water invading construction work and materials (malbaa). Come October, more traffic restrictions shall follow with blocking up of major roads in order to ensure smooth passage for dignitaries, sportsmen and politicians of course. All this to showcase beautiful dilli and improve tourism. Or all this to swallow the common wealth of we the people? Newspapers are having a gala time in reporting various scams and I am somehow aligned with mani shankar iyer’s wish of rains spoiling the great commonwealth circus. Certainly, dilli’s bid for 2019 asiad stands thwarted – silver lining behind dark clouds. However, order of apex court gagging newspapers from reporting on ensuing investigation in re: ‘scams’ is a retro step and has the effect of validating a legislation conferring immunity on these scams. The public has all the rights to be informed about the nitty-gritty’s of the scams since it is the public money, which is being frittered and pocketed.