INDIA IS
G rrr eat !!

Writes VINOD VARSHNEY

If one takes a tour of Delhi and ventures to go to its inner areas away from main roads, the city shocks. It can be labeled as City of Garbage. Why this remains so? Who are the people responsible for this? Why citizens of Delhi tolerate all this? These are the questions which bother everybody, yet no solution in sight.


I live trans-Yamuna at Indraprastha Extension. This colony came into existence some 20 years ago. Expectations were that the colony would be better than many as it was a planned one, based on new concept of cooperative group housing.

But even after twenty years the streets here remain littered with garbage. One can see everywhere much publicized Green and Blue plastic garbage bins in the area, but truly they themselves have become model pieces of garbage. Many of them have become ramshackled, others have melted at places by fire, scavengers lit for getting rid of burnable garbage.

Moist and bio-degradable garbage in these bin stinks. A truck, of course comes every morning with mechanized system to lift these plastic bins up in the air to empty. But before they come street boys toil overnight and scour the garbage to pick paper, plastic and card-board from bins to earn their livelihood. "How much do you earn", I asked.

“ Rs 80 per day by selling paper, plastic and cardboard collected here. It takes me three hours to do it”, tells Ali.

So, thousands get livelihood in the capital of India this way! Truly, thanks to our leaders, India hai Mahaan!!( India is G rrr eat !!)