DHBVN to exchange old CFL's : Question is where

This was a press release of DHBVN carried by a national daily Indian express.

Hisar, July 29 The Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) has turned more environment-friendly and cautious. It will now collect old unbroken burnt or used Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs), incandescent bulbs and tube lights for proper disposal so that these are not harmful to society and environment.

So i called the customer care number of DHBVN. the bloke up picked up the phone had no clue what i was talking about.

So i called up the office of the S.E (supd. engg.) DHBVN gurgaon. whoever picked up the phone had no clue about the exchange offer. when i insisted i was given the number of some executive engg. DHBVN who is supposed to be dealing with this.

When i called up the number nobody picked up the phone.

Obviously the people down the line in DHBVN have no clue what people up the line are doing.
The customer care is only for line faults. i wonder why do they call it customer care. it should be renamed fault care.

Meanwhile DHBVN issues press release's about how environmnetal freindly it is, consumers are pushed cfls' and nobody has a clue about the environmental impact.

from gurgaon to jajjhar

as i drove down from gurgaon to jhajjar i clicked a few photos. here they are for your pleasure

Drinking in the greens

a liquor outlet in the green belt at dhanwapur road. the forest and the excise department, where are you????

Haryana's way to promote solar devices

As per a press release from the public relations department of Haryana Government, Gurgaon and Faridabad Cities of Haryana havebeen selected for development as Solar/Green Cities under the schemeof Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Govt. of India. The release goes on to say that the project aimed at a minimum 10 per cent reduction in projected demand of conventional energy at the end of five years.

Now the funny part, let me share the ground reality of the government endeavor to promote non-conventional or renewable energy. I wanted to promote solar lantern among my domestic help as well as among people providing everyday services like the vegetable vendor, gardner etc. So i called up the Aditya Solar Shop in Gurgaon and wanted two solar lanterns. As the official concerned knew me i coordinated with him the date and time when i could pick up the lanterns.

The lanterns are actually very well made and cost rupees seven hundred a piece. Now comes the interesting part. The purchaser has to fill a full-page form. The official confided that the form was more important than the seven hundred rupees i was giving him.

A form to buy an item which saves electricity and does not emit green house gases. which century are we living in? :(

The form has columns like

Subject: Request for purchase of _________________
Name of the beneficiary
Fathers Name
Village/Tehsil/District(Full Address)

If this was not all, you are supposed to submit a photocopy of either a ration card/voter id card/passport/ any other residence proof. (gosh!)

Then comes the best part. It says “ I hereby swear that i will not sale or shift the system purchased from Aditya Solar Shop under subsidised program. This is followed by a signature and seal from the sarpanch/counsellor of your area. :)

So what happens to the bengali maid who does not have any residential proof or the vegetable hawker who comes from U.P etc. Well they should not acquire a solar device as they don’t have a residential proof and hence they can’t go green.

So for whom are these devices for? People who have money and have a residential proof. Unfortunately most of these people don’t care about going green or environment. I have neighbours who have bought a heavy-duty generator so that all AC’s in their house can be switched on in case of a power cut. They won’t consider a solar device.

The government and its enlightened officers want to go green on its own steam without taking the public along, specially the teaming masses who actually would make a difference to the ambitious programs of the government. Does somebody actually care or is it just good for press releases, disbursal of funds and then restart on the ambitious program once again.

The success of a program lies with the people who are the target segment. A little moving out might do a whale of a good to officials who draft and implement government programs and the actually the government can reduce the demand of electricity by over 25%.

History in Tauru block of Mewat District

These monuments i think are from the lodhi and tuglaq periods. Some conservation efforts are on but from the upkeep as well as cow dung cakes inside the monuments i got a feeling the locals do not own this history. in fact there is a school running right infront of these monuments and a PHC or primary health center nearby.

No wonder they say " those who forget history are condemned to repeat it". we claim we have a long and rich history but we neither own nor take care of this history.

Haryana and its police

This is the map given on the haryana police website http://haryanapolice.gov.in/districtmap.asp when i checked today.

if we were to believe haryana police and please note that Mr C.M, Haryana has has only 19 districts.

The mission of the haryana police is "to help the common man". However in the the absence of basic updated information i don't think it is possible.

the basic idea of internet is make current information available to all. Websites are a window of you to the world. If from the window i see a house in disorder than i am sure the house is not in order.

Safai Karamcharis and the state of cleanliness in gurgaon city

Sulabh International has been given the contract for cleanliness in large parts of gurgaon city. As per the contract signed between H.U.D.A and Sulabh international, the organisation after sweeping the streets will pickup solid waste to be disposed off at a predetermined place as designated or instructed by H.U.D.A or haryana urban development authority. I am not aware if contracts have been signed with other authorities or agencies in gurgaon by sulabh international.

The contract signed with H.U.D.A also carries a clause that the solid waste will not be burnt and has to be disposed off. In case solid waste is burnt a penalty will be charged. (Here in the above photos you can see sulabh safai karamcharis smoking while garbage is burning. The karamcharis can be identified with the blue overall with Sulabh written across the back)

With the tolerance levels exhibited by both our administrators and citizens solid waste is regularly burnt irrespective of the fact both residents of gurgaon and the sweeper staff are aware of the environmental and health effects of burning garbage. The status quo remains as nobody wants to bell the cat. The residents are too lazy to object with a large number of residents encouraging the sweepers to burn garbage whereas the sweepers are too lazy to pick up and dispose garbage and in the absence of anybody objecting are too happy to burn garbage and laze around.

If the solution for cleanliness of the city is by burning garbage and if a large number of residents feel no problem in burning garbage and in fact burn garbage themselves then why does the district administration waste so much money (what i heard is that the sulabh contract was worth over 70lacs) in hiring a cleaning agency. let everybody fend for themselves, clean the place and burn the garbage. At least that money can be diverted into some better use.