AAP government has launched a cynical ‘freebies-run’ ahead of Delhi assembly elections. After free metro rides for women, it’s free power to residents consuming up to 200 units a month now. Such inducements cannot make up for AAP’s patchy performance in government. Delhiites need better infrastructure and services, not sops.
Tough laws won’t end traffic violations. Enforcement is the real challenge
It’s difficult to disagree with the intent behind the steep fines and tougher punishment for traffic violations. The fear of these, however, won’t end the nightmare on Indian roads. Enforcement is another challenge. Making tough laws is easy. The hard part is investing in public transport and road safety education.
BJP’s half-hearted expulsion of Kuldeep Sengar betrays lack of resolve on women’s safety
The Supreme Court shifting cases related to the Unnao rape out of UP is a strong indictment of the Yogi Adityanath government’s failure to ensure justice. The BJP’s belated, half-hearted expulsion of rape suspect MLA Kuldeep Sengar seems to be reactive and betrays a lack of resolve on women’s safety.
Shri Shivam Vij’s column made for depressing reading. Whatever may be the electoral merit of Sengar – the political landscape is increasingly littered with such flotsam and jetsam – the nature of his transgressions ought to have precluded the sort of blanket protection and immunity he enjoyed for so long. Had the young woman’s father not been killed, sparking national outrage and fury, he would not have been arrested. 2. It is likely that the apex court would have considered the whole history of this case, how it was sought to be suppressed instead of being investigated, before concluding that a fair trial was not possible in Yogiji’s Uttar Pradesh. An indictment of both the political and the police leadership. Both khadi and khakhi. 3. Parliament has more women members than ever before. On matters such as these, they could sink their political differences, form a powerful pressure group, stand in solidarity with the victims / survivors, ensure that electoral or political calculations do not let down India’s girls and women.
The sort of high quality infrastructure Delhi needs costs a lot of money to create and operate. The Delhi Metro was made possible by low cost Japanese funding. Even so, it is not a profitable enterprise, so sharing of subsidy between Centre and state is necessary and justified. That should be the approach for other projects as well, with the finances of Delhi being more sound than other metros. To offer free water, power, public transport is fiscally irresponsible, smacks of electoral desperation.