Residents disappointed, say can’t be made to pay inflated bills : Hindustan Times

31.10.2015

RWA OFFICE-BEARER SAYS IT IS STRANGE THAT THE DISCOMS DON’T WANT AN AUDIT AND ALSO REFUSE TO COME UNDER RTI

NEW DELHI: Residents expressed disappointment at the Delhi high court order allowing the pleas of three city discoms challenging the government’s decision to have their accounts audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG).

According to Rajiv Kakria of the Greater Kailash-I RWA, the high court has taken its own time in telling the people that there was a technical flaw in the petition.

“The public already knows that ` 8,000 crore irregularities have been revealed from just the papers handed over willingly by discoms to the CAG; that too documents from 2008 onwards. How long will Delhiites be made to pay inflated bills while the law mer rily takes its own course,” Kakria said, adding that it was a disappointing verdict for the people.

“In the political slugfest, it’s the Delhiites who are being cheated. We are disappointed,” he said.

BS Vohra, president of East Delhi RWAs Joint Front - Federation, said the Delhi government must amend that agreement to bring discoms in the net of the CAG. “The audited balance sheets of discoms clearly show that they have 49% share capital and that’s equal to the share of the government. This allows the remaining 2% share capital with a third company, which is to be added to the kitty of discoms. This needs to change so that these power companies can come under the CAG purview,” Vohra said.

According to him, it is strange that the discoms don’t want an audit and also refuse to come under RTI.

“There is definitely something fishy and the court must look into it,” Vohra said.

with thanks : Hindustan Times : Link NA

Disappointed with Delhi HC order, say RWAs : Times of India

30.10.2015

NEW DELHI: The Delhi high court's order to quash the audit of discoms by CAG has come as a huge disappointment for many residents. The RWAs have been demanding an audit of discoms for a very long time as they allege that the discoms are misleading consumers. The Delhi government has decided to challenge the decision in Supreme Court and the RWAs say the government should aggressively pursue the matter.

"It is very disappointing. Supreme Court has allowed CAG audit in telecom and other cases. So, why can't it be done in case of discoms," asked Atul Goyal, president of URJA (United Residents Joint Action).

"The public already knows that irregularities have been revealed from just the papers handed over willingly by discoms to CAG. How long will Delhiites be made to pay inflated bills? ," said social activist Rajiv Kakria.

Anil Sood, president of Chetna, said, "the order suffers from factual and legal infirmities. The HC can't go against the Supreme Court, which in similar circumstances involving telecom agreed for an audit by CAG. It is within the mandate of the CAG to conduct the audit."

But some RWA members say the HC order is due to the flawed agreement between the discoms and the government, which was signed when the Congress was in power. "The city government should scrap or modify the agreement," said BS Vohra, president, East Delhi RWA Joint Front Federation.

with thanks : Times of India : LINK 

MCD sanitation workers continue strike, may face action : Business Today

30.10.2015

All the efforts by the East Delhi municipal corporation to end the strike by its sanitation workers seem to be going in vain. As the strike still continues, garbage has been piling up on the streets and is proving to be a major hassle for residents.

Though the Delhi High Court (HC) has asked the three municipal corporations to ensure that all the garbage is cleared from the city within two days, going by the current scenario, it would be difficult for the civic agency to comply with the order.

Heaps of garbage can be found dumped in areas like Krishna Nagar, Azad Nagar and Laxmi Nagar.

"The stink emanating from all that garbage has made it difficult for us to even walk in the area. The corporation should understand the sensitivity of the issue and address it. The piled-up garbage can spread so many diseases and will give rise to pests," said BS Vohra, president of east Delhi RWAs Joint Front Federation.

On the other hand, the East Delhi corporation claims that it has started complying with the court order and said whichever sanitation worker doesn't work, his salary would be deducted. "Since last night, our tippers and manpower are on the job. 550 tonnes of garbage has been removed by making 127 trips of trucks. 10 trucks have been provided by the North MCD," said Harsh Malhotra, Mayor, East Delhi Municipal Corporation. He further said auto tippers are plying on the route to collect garbage. Additional resources are also being arranged to lift the backlog of garbage.

"About 60 drivers from DTC have also been called as standby to keep the trucks moving, although all the East MCD truck drivers have resumed their duties. Besides, private truck companies are kept in loop for any exigency," he added.

The striking sanitation workers, meanwhile, said there was no point going back to work if they don't get their salaries.

"Most of the sanitation workers are determined to get back to work only after they are paid their dues," said Rajender Mewati, general secretary of United Front of MCD Employees Associations.

with thanks : businesstoday.in : LINK

'The stink is so bad we can't even walk in the area': Residents vent anger as garbage piles up in streets while sanitation strike continues : Daily Mail

30.10.15

All the efforts by the East Delhi municipal corporation to end the strike by its sanitation workers seem to be going in vain. 

As the strike still continues, garbage has been piling up on the streets and is proving to be a major hassle for residents. 

Though the Delhi High Court (HC) has asked the three municipal corporations to ensure that all the garbage is cleared from the city within two days, going by the current scenario, it would be difficult for the civic agency to comply with the order. 

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As the strike by the sanitation workers of East Delhi municipal corporation continues, garbage has been piling up on the streets and is proving to be a major hassle for residents

Heaps of garbage can be found dumped in areas like Krishna Nagar, Azad Nagar and Laxmi Nagar. 

“The stink emanating from all that garbage has made it difficult for us to even walk in the area. The corporation should understand the sensitivity of the issue and address it. The piled-up garbage can spread so many diseases and will give rise to pests,” said BS Vohra, president of east Delhi RWAs Joint Front Federation. 

On the other hand, the East Delhi corporation claims that it has started complying with the court order and said whichever sanitation worker doesn’t work, his salary would be deducted. 

“Since last night, our tippers and manpower are on the job. 550 tonnes of garbage has been removed by making 127 trips of trucks. Ten trucks have been provided by the North MCD,” said Harsh Malhotra, Mayor, East Delhi Municipal Corporation. 

He further said auto tippers are plying on the route to collect garbage. Additional resources are also being arranged to lift the backlog of garbage. 

“About 60 drivers from DTC have also been called as standby to keep the trucks moving, although all the East MCD truck drivers have resumed their duties. Besides, private truck companies are kept in loop for any exigency,” he added. 

The striking sanitation workers, meanwhile, said there was no point going back to work if they don’t get their salaries. 

“Most of the sanitation workers are determined to get back to work only after they are paid their dues,” said Rajender Mewati, general secretary of United Front of MCD Employees Associations.

with thanks : DailyMail.co.uk : LINK

Mobile app “HumAra “

Respected Sir,

I am writing to you to talk about a matter that is close to my heart and I feel a very important matter of trust and reliability in our nation.

Before I make my point, here is a brief description about me. I am Madhawi Choudhary. I am from Bihar. The entrepreneurship bug bit me when I was working with Wipro Technologies. To accomplish my dream I left the corporate life and joined Indian Institute of Management, Kashipur to do MBA. After completion of my course in March, 2015 I am living my dream and have started my own venture.

The goal of my venture is to build a reputation management system in the society which is safe and secure, as since childhood I have experienced a trust deficit environment. The environment that I am talking about is our own households where we live.

The busy and fast life has left many families with no other option but to depend on the household help to assist with daily chores. They cook for the family; they keep the house clean, do the dishes and also look after elderly members of the family and also the kids. The question that arises is how much we trust our household helps and similarly how much household helps trust us.

One of the main reasons of lack of trust is we do not know the person well. I don’t know how many of us take the pain of verifying employees’ background. Likewise, employees have no means to verify employers’ credentials. Every day we come across horrifying incidents of crimes committed by domestic helps and exploitation of workers at work places. Statistics from National Crime Report Bureau portrays an alarming picture. Work trust, once destroyed, is difficult to regain.  There is a long list of behaviors that can damage it. The list of things that can be done to restore it is equally long.

The mobile app “HumAra “which we have developed, is definitely a solution to build the mutual trust between employers and the household helps. The best part is that it’s free.

Our app lets one track and maintains records of those working as domestic helps and allows maintaining documents such as driving license, UID and even keeps records of salaries, advances and attendance of each employee.

The app can be used to-

·         Keep Track of records, photographs and their UID’s. The advantage being

o   It is a deterrent as they know you have their records stored

o   If employee leaves on a bad note or had to leave because of exploitation by employers one can flag it on our app. The advantage then is that wherever they apply for a job or the employer hires a new employee, the person can see they have not left on a good note.

o   One can keep a track of who referred the person and who else knows that person. Example Ram is referred by Lakshman who in his job has been referred by Bharat. So using our app if one can’t get through Lakshman then one will get access to Bharat. Basically the person shouldn’t be able to get away after doing something wrong.

o   Generation of appointment letters by Employers.

·         Keep track of things like

o   When is your driver’s license expiring?

o   Did he take an advance?

o   Leaves

o   Last Raise

o   Bonus paid on Diwali

HumAra dreams of an environment where trusting someone isn’t a crime, where when you meet a person you are reasonably sure about their antecedents and don’t have to rely purely on an informal word of mouth to know their background. Where reliability is high and great work is rewarded.

The ratings of employees and employers will build a reputation of each individual over time and will enable us in hiring trustworthy household helps and a safe working environment for employees. The app can be used both for households and for small businesses. The most important thing is our app is free because safety of society in which we live is important to us.

I truly and firmly believe that you will consider our social initiative and will influence everyone to use our app to promote a climate of trust and ensure safety at each household and in the work place.

Let me know the time as per your convenience, when we can meet to discuss this in detail and for a demo.

My Best

Madhawi Choudhary

Co-Founder– Hum Point

A mere technicality will not DIVERT FORM PUBLIC MEMORY Rs. 8000 Cr IRREGULARITIES already dug out by CAG

Dear Friends,

Just two short points ....

1. High Court took its own sweet time in telling us that there is a Technical flow in the petition.

2. Public already knows that Rs. 8000 Cr irregularities have been revealed from just the Papers handed over willingly by DISCOMS to CAG ....... that too papers from 2008 onwards.

HOW LONG WILL DELHITES BE MADE TO PAY INFLATED BILLS .......... WHILE THE LAW MERRILY TAKES ITS OWN COURSE.

In the Political slug-fest its the Delhite who is being short changed.

DISAPPOINTED ...... YES in the HIGH COURT TOO.

Rajiv Kakria

Delhi: Shaken residents raise pitch for disaster plan : Hindustan Times

Delhi: Shaken residents raise pitch for disaster plan : Hindustan Times

Rattled by Monday’s earthquake that shook the capital, some resident welfare associations have written to chief minister Arvind Kejriwal asking for an immediate disaster management action plan.

Many feel that the Capital with haphazard urbanisation is sitting on a time bomb. Even the Delhi government’s draft disaster management plan warns that should a powerful earthquake strike the national capital, it would cause more devastation than a nuclear bomb explosion.

The residents say they have no idea of what to do, whom to call and do not even have the basic knowledge about to save lives if a disaster strikes.

According to BS Vohra, president of East Delhi RWAs Joint Front - Federation, who wrote the letter to Kejriwal and deputy CM Manish Sisodia, proper training must be given to the RWA members, who work on the ground, and necessary equipment must also be provided to facilitate relief and rescue operations.

“Over the last few years we are regularly raising the issue, that the RWAs of NCR, which are registered bodies, must be connected with the Delhi Disaster Management Authority so that in case of any earthquake of larger magnitude, we could come forward and save precious lives. RWAs are the people of Delhi working for them and with them. If we are involved, the preparations will be foolproof,” Vohra said.

Pawan Arora of the Lajpat Nagar RWA says the way the corporation effectively takes the help of the associations in spreading awareness about dengue and malaria is the perfect model available. “The RWAs somehow do not get involved at all. Be it the Delhi government or the disaster management authority, no one approaches us. No workshops are conducted, no drills take place and thereby no awareness. We don’t have the basic knowledge of what to do if such a disaster hits us,” Arora said.

The Delhi Disaster Management Authority, however, claims to be getting all stakeholders, including RWAs, involved in disaster management drills.

“We are now even eyeing community disaster management through which we will develop a network of volunteers across localities. These people will be identified and then will receive training. After the Nepal earthquake, the Delhi government along with us had taken up the task of updating the disaster management plan, which has been done three months back and it has this new provision,” a senior DDMA official said.

The government agencies have carried out 80 earthquake mock drills since the Nepal earthquake took place.

A number of a agencies, including Delhi Police, Delhi Fire Services and health department are invloved in carrying out these drills.

with thanks : Hindustan Times : LINK

South Delhi Reels under DISCOM SHOCK whole day .....

Madam,

The Power situation has not been much in the news of late, there have been frequent Power Cuts for the past two weeks in the Festival Season.

TODAY has been worse, long power cuts are not as dangerous as the supply at Extremely LOW or HIGH FREQUENCY.

Not just that, it alternated between LOW and HIGH FREQUENCY at 10 Second intervals putting our Life and Equipment at Risk and my inverter kept tripping.

I called up Mr. Chetan Sharma and inquired about the situation in GK-II, he reported similar condition.

I request you to call for the Records of BRPL Rajdhani and see if they have maintained Grid Discipline.

Questions ???????

1. WHY DID THEY NOT RESORT TO LOAD SHEDDING, instead they tried to RUN THE GRID AT LOW FREQUENCY WITH MASSIVE SPIKES?

2. DID THE DISCOM PROCURE SUFFICIENT POWER?

I request you to please issue a SHOW CAUSE NOTICE to the DISCOMS and if found wanting in anticipating the Sudden Dip then DISCOMS should be penalised.

Warm Regards,

Rajiv Kakria

Social Activist

Greater Kailash-I

Earthquake of 7.7 magnitude at GERM in Afghanistan, Delhi rattled !

Massive Earthquake rocked North India, a few minutes ago. It was of the 7.7 Magnitude with base in Hindu Kush. It effected Pakistan, Afghanistan & almost all the states of Northern India. It was a big quake & things were jolting badly. We all were on the road for almost 15 minutes. My daughter who was in Metro nearing preet vihar, said the metro was shaking badly and one old lady started crying.

Pic with thanks : India TV

Protest against Theka in Krishna Nagar