Flying squads to ground offenders

The capital’s commuters are running scared of Alpha, Beta, Charlie and Delta — they aren’t deadly rays but the names of the metro’s flying squads.

Members of these crack inspection groups have fanned out across all stations, scanning commuters for undervalued tickets. Their hawk-like gaze also track down instances of misbehaviour, squatting and littering.

The squad members carry hand-held token (ticket) readers to check their validity and value. Those who are found travelling with tokens of less value or overstaying inside stations for more than two hours are fined Rs 50 right away, metro spokesperson Anuj Dayal said.

Each squad comprises a station manager, a controller, a CISF official and two private security guards.

Commuters facing problems can contact the train operator over the emergency alarm system. The train operator, in turn, can alert any member of the flying squads about disturbances, Dayal said.

The squads will also ensure all commuters get off at terminal stations to prevent them from travelling in the opposite direction. Offenders will be handed over to police if they don’t pay.

Puff provokes stabbing

A puff can cause cancer. If you do it at the wrong place and before the wrong people, death can arrive faster.

A smoker and his friend were stabbed to death recently on a busy kerb outside a cigarette shop after they blew the smoke in the faces of two strangers and caused an altercation.

The incident took place at Pallikaranai, a Chennai suburb, when Raghu and Suresh allegedly blew cigarette smoke on one Velu and his friends.

According to police officials, the two groups had got into a heated exchange over the smoke when suddenly Velu and his acolytes pulled out knives and stabbed Raghu and Suresh. Raghu bled to death on the spot while Suresh died in hospital.

Raghu’s relatives damaged vehicles and streetlights demanding the arrest of the culprits.

Rs 200 to get back Rs 50

S.S. Bhanushali spent Rs 200 to get back Rs 50 over a year later but he sits back with the sense of a mission accomplished.

The businessman is an example to countless commuters, forcing BEST, which runs the city’s buses, to return Rs 50 he claimed had been wrongly collected from him.

“I was travelling late on March 30, 2007 night to Borivli with a return ticket when a checker ordered me to pay a fine for travelling with an old ticket,” Bhanushali said.

He tried arguing the ticket had been bought during the journey but the checker failed to identify it properly and collected the fine of Rs 50. The conductor, too, didn’t intervene to tell the inspector the ticket was valid.

Undeterred, Bhanushali wrote a letter to senior BEST officials with copies of the ticket and the penalty receipt.

After a year of letters both ways, Bhanushali was able to get his case through. Last week, Pravin Chheda, chairman of the BEST panel, handed him a cheque of Rs 50. “It’s good to get back the money and be proved right,” Bhanushali said.

New parks

Two years to the Commonwealth Games, parks are sprouting around Delhi.

The capital’s civic body, the MCD, is on an overdrive to set up new parks, even turning some dumping grounds into manicured enclosures dotted with flowers in full bloom. One such park, created at a sanitary landfill site, was opened early this week near Uttam Nagar in west Delhi.

lans are afoot to turn roundabouts and spaces below flyovers into “green spots” before the sporting event.

 (PTI)

Mumbai: This Sunday, watch Monsoon Emotions, an exhibition of recent paintings by Shyam Landge, at Jehangir Art Gallery. Time: 10am to 7pm. The venue, a well-known Mumbai landmark, is at Kala Ghoda, opposite Elphinstone College. You can call 22048212 for more information.