‘World class city’: Ferozshah Road spelt in three different ways on the same road starting from Mandi House roundabout to Le Meridian in the Capital.

Take your pick

Preparations for the Commonwealth Games are moving full steam ahead now. But in their rush to make Delhi a “world class city”, the planners appear to be losing sight of the script. The hurry is leading to numerous mistakes and the only saving grace is that there is still time left to rectify them.

The beautification drive being undertaken in the New Delhi area is something one cannot miss. Be it the refurbishment of Connaught Place – at a whopping Rs.700 crore – or providing the streets with new furniture, there is no dearth of activity.
In fact, the most visible signs of New Delhi’s transformation appear to be the signboards. But the only thing that has not changed is the habit of excess. So now on a mere 100-metre stretch of Ashoka Road one can find up to a dozen newly installed boards, which only confuse and disturb motorists while driving. The planner, however, think otherwise. So they have installed numerous irrelevant boards like “Give way”.

What makes matters worse is that the messages on many of these boards are not only grammatically wrong -- as the one on the Jai Singh Road-Ashoka Road roundabout reading “NDMC limit end, CPWD begin” -- many of them are also spelt wrongly, like the “Children Park” at India Gate roundabout.

When it comes to history, those installing the boards make a laughing stock of themselves while naming the legendary figures from the past. So Ferozshah Road, which is named after a famous king, is spelt in at least four different ways on the signboards. If only they had looked up the government records or files, they could have done better service to the late King.

Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar

Remembering Braille

To commemorate the birth anniversary of Louis Braille, the All-India Confederation of the Blind organised a function in the Capital on Monday to honour visually impaired students.

A highlight of the function was presentation of prizes and awards worth about Rs.5 lakh to visually impaired young men and women. The awards comprised computers with speech software, prizes for winners of Braille competitions, cash awards to Indian winners of an international Braille essay contest and cash award for a visually impaired student securing second position in MA (Economics) at Mysore University.

A large number of people attended the function that was organised to remember the inventor of the embossed reading and writing system for the visually challenged.

As part of its commemoration of the 201st birth anniversary of Louis Braille, the Confederation has launched a project under which a New Year’s gift of informative and recreational Braille books worth about Rs.3 lakh to over 45 institutions for the visually impaired across the country would be made.

Union Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Mukul Wasnik, who was the chief guest at the function, said his Ministry had prepared draft amendments to the Persons With Disabilities Act for introduction in Parliament soon.

Madhur Tankha