This refers to Sunita Narain’s ‘What is the right right?’, March 27.
I appreciate her clear views on buses versus cars and the consequent damage caused to the environment by cars. During my college days in Delhi (1981-84), I remember the DTC used to have 5,000 buses, including about 1,500 hired private buses under the ‘KM Scheme’ (in this case, the conductor used to be a DTC employee). The population of Delhi in those days was not more than a quarter of what it is now. I believe the DTC now has a fleet of about 4,00 buses and another 1,000 Blueline buses even today.
Delhi has been turned into a city of new kind of ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’. The ‘haves’ are those who have a car, and ‘have-nots’ are clearly those who don’t own one. What is even more painful is that the city is being constantly developed to make the lives of these ‘haves’ more comfortable. Why else would pavements disappear? Pedestrian-crossings either don’t exist, or we make the poor ‘have-nots’ walk an extra mile to cross the road via foot-over-bridges or under-passes!
Clearly, the more things change, the more they have remained the same
Raj Bhatia, via email
