HAPPY DIWALI- ALSO FOR THE RAGPICKERS ?

TIMES NEWS NETWORK



New Delhi: As the Central Market at Lajpat Nagar shimmered and everyone went about shopping and eating out with family, 10-yearold Dipak pushed through the crowd with a sackful of rags on his shoulder. Diwali is serious business for ragpickers like him for this is when they make that extra buck with gift wrappings, cardboard containers and disposable plastic strewn all over the place.
Dipak starts his day as early as 5am and leaves his house in Badarpur to collect the rags before Central Market opens. Festival time means more work for the wrappings disposed of by shopkeepers are better in quality. The day’s collections from the sale of these waste items gets the children anywhere between Rs 50 to Rs 100 on an average. Festival days are, however, special and rags can fetch anywhere up to Rs 150 a day.
Rahul, 12, comes from Madanpur Khadar to Central Market with his grandmother to sift out useful waste from the lanes of the market.
He said that the collection of plastic wrappings has gone down this time due to the plastic ban. Ragpickers earn up to Rs 150 during festivals as compared to Rs 50-150 on normal days




Festival means boom time for city ragpickers
A vacant parking space in the middle of the market reveals the Diwali collection of these ragpickers. On the eve of the festival the children and their guardians were seen going through large sacks of waste items. From used glasses, plates, empty bottles, cardboard wrappings to ropes and containers, the sacks stock almost every piece of useful waste collected through the day. While Moushmi’s mother sorted the waste, the five-year-old giggled away smashing and rolling a used plastic glass a shopper threw along the way. For these children, life revolves around waste.
Ten-year-old Zakir who had a busy day in crowded Sarojini Nagar market pointed that after the market closes the collection process will pick up as that’s the time when the police doesn’t chase them away.
The buzz and the glamour of the markets is in absolute contrast to their lives, but these ragpickers perform their roles focussing only on the road below watching out for every small piece of waste that can get them money.
Ragpickers earn up to Rs 150 (approx 2 Euro) during festivals as compared to Rs 50-150 (approx 1- 2 euro)on normal days

A more cynical news paper article is indeed hard to find

DELHI & GURGAON WITHOUT POWER

For an Indian it is normal that each day there is one or more power cuts, they can take less than a minute are take half a day. Indian just get fuming if the power- cuts comes unexpected and with a high frequency. The minimum of the expectations is that the government at least announces the power- cuts.
For me it is not understandable why Indians accept this situation. Everybody being proud that money is spoiled on a totally unnecessary mission to the moon and to buy the used air fighters of the Russian and France air force to fight a non- existing enemy (Pakistan) instead of building power plants.

A country gifted by nature with a tremendous solar energy, is since ever fighting against this free power instead of collecting and use it. Just because in the WEST (where there is a lack of sun energy) they fight the heat with air - conditioners.

With the mercury rising to 44 C angry Delhiites said they felt they were back a decade ago, facing six hours of power cuts daily. The peak demand on Friday touched 3,800 MW and according to the state government, there was a shortage of almost 400 MW power in the city which led to widespread power cuts.


Fed up with excuses, many Delhiites questioned why the government could not provide a load shedding schedule so they could be prepared in advance. It can happen anytime from afternoon to night and is very inconvenient for us. Last night, the power went off for two hours and even the power provider helpline was useless. We went to the local BSES office at 1 am and then only supply resumed,’’ said an irate resident of Lajpat Nagar.

Power provider BSES — which services most of Delhi — claimed that it was not possible to have a load shedding schedule because it was not possible to predict when there would be low frequency in the grid and when load would peak. They further set only a set pattern could make a load shedding schedule possible. ‘‘There is no shortage of power in Delhi. We have tied up for more than sufficient power but it is unable to reach us. If there is a power shortage, we will give a load shedding schedule,’’ said a top BSES official.

So it is just all happening in my dream that I am in the dark and I loose all the time the connection to my WLAN because of a non- existing power cut.