Ponty, buses and PPPs

Liquor baron Ponty Chadha and his brother who were killed in a fratricide incident had another business not widely known. Ponty had recently acquired the concession to run public transport buses in Delhi. His company had won the bids for three clusters with a combined fleet of 600-odd vehicles. Now questions are being asked about who will run the business.

Temporary solution, permanent jam

I write this stuck in traffic. Nothing unusual. But my location makes me realise, once again, how our highway route to progress is going nowhere. The road I am using is newly commissioned and expensive. It is the 28-km Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway, which was built just a few years ago to take care of the explosion of traffic between the two cities.

Manufactured Chaos

As governance formally surrendered the administration of Delhi to chaos on All Fools' Day, April 1, 2001, the fate of its citizens' health and public transport continued to hang in balance. Ministers and politicians had a field day blaming each other for the chaos and rioting that broke out on April 3.

The CNG sabotage

Exhausting Practices

it was bandied as a strategy to promote good vehicle maintenance and help curb pollution. But India's inspection and maintenance ( i&m ) programme -- in other words, the Pollution Under Control ( puc ) certificate scheme -- has turned into a major farce.

Letters

Set the record straight

Diesel cars dearer; cycles cheaper

IT IS a budget with concern for the environment. The Delhi government has made diesel cars costlier and bicycles cheaper.

How green is budget?

THE Union budget has announced its usual palliative for inclusive growth and aam aadmi. But the urban aam aadmi loses all.

Letters

Farmers’ fundamental right We must have the right to decide whether we want to eat Bt brinjal (‘Don’t make a mash of it’, February 16-28, 2010). Similarly, farmers should also have the right to decide what food to grow since they will be affected the most. Why just Bt brinjal, farmers will be affected adversely by any genetically modified (GM) crop. Such crops will steal their freedom of choosing seeds.

Stranded at the station

Sonika Gupta, 29, who lives in Delhi’s Geeta Colony troubles her husband every morning to drop her to Yamuna Bank Metro Station on his motorbike; there is no bus service to the station, which is four km from her house.