By Sidharth Mishra

 In the first week of November Delhi woke up to the smog at its thickest for the season. The newspapers said that Graded Response Action Plan (Grap) stage III guidelines have been made operational and that a large number of vehicles would be going off the road as long as the guidelines remain operational.

On the day they were protesting their party leader and chief minister Arvind Kejriwal was away campaigning in Singrauli Madhya Pradesh. Worse, he was in the company of party leader and Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann. The poor state of air in Delhi, which is suffocating its residents, has largely been caused by stubble fire in the fields of Punjab.

By Sidharth Mishra

Ask somebody working with the Delhi government what’s happening, the reply more than often would be, “Doing Kar Sewa”. Now what’s doing Kar Sewa? More interestingly when did the word become part of the national vocabulary?

It was 1984, in the aftermath of Operation Blue Star, that the word first became known outside Punjab. When the task to rebuild the portions of Golden Temple in Amritsar, which had got damaged during the operation to flush out terrorists, began, initiative was taken by a group of holy men to render ‘Kar Sewa’.

Kar Sewa, literally meaning voluntary service, is an integral part of Sikh religion. ‘Sarbat da Bhala’ meaning common good of all is one of the fundamental principles of the Sikhism. Thus voluntary service across the country for common good came to be called Kar Sewa.

By Sidharth Mishra

In the official files polluting times have begun in Delhi and the national capital region. Although it’s another matter that the morning walkers are still to feel the deteriorating air quality. This possibly because the onset of Diwali has been delayed this year.

Nevertheless, what’s nice to see is that the measures of controlling air pollution like spraying water among others have begun in the right earnest. The pollution control machinery this year thankfully has not waited for the quality measuring meters to turn red before start acting. What’s more wonderful is that nobody in the news headlines is running to take credit for the effort.

The credit for the efforts made so far should go to a rejuvenated Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) in the national capital region. Led by a ‘battle hardened’ bureaucrat Dr MM Kutty, a former Secretary in union government, the CAQM was established in 2021 to address the deteriorating air quality in Delhi and the NCR. Since the past two years it has taken several important initiatives to combat winter air pollution.

By Sidharth Mishra

Last week the Special Cell of Delhi Police was in the news after a very longtime. In the bygone days when the CBI and the ED did not grab the newspaper headlines, it was the Special cell of Delhi Police which seized the public attention. Albeit for very different reasons.

The Delhi High Court last week reduced the death sentence given to the main accused in the Batla House encounter case to lifeterm. The Batla House encounter was a significant operation conducted by the Special Cell in September 2008 around the Jamia Nagar area of South East Delhi.

By Sidharth Mishra

Turbulent times for Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) refuses to end. Last week another of its prominent faces, Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate officials. The matter once again related to Delhi Excise scam under which party’s number two Manish Sisodia continues to cool his heels in the Tihar Jail. Party’s another ace Satyender Jain is behind the bars in another money laundering case  

A party, whose one of the mainstays of success and survival has been creating favourable perceptions on the social media, once again did well to overcome the setback last week by pushing a suitable narrative to cover up the arrest -- it was not be a mere coincidence that the Supreme Court observations in Manish Sisodia’s bail argument, which suited AAP, got more coverage than Sanjay Singh’s arrest.

By Sidharth Mishra

About 100 kilometers from Bhubaneswar in the midst of Odia hinterland, a quiet social revolution is taking place. The place is Jajpur, an industrial hub, developed by the Odisha government in an attempt to cultivate a prototype of the legendary steel city of Jamshedpur in Jharkhand. It’s a dusty and bumpy road which takes one to Jajpur

Despite the roads, Jajpur has been a success story with big brands like Tata Steel and Jindal Stainless finding firm footing in the forested area, not just making steel but initiating a social revolution. The social revolution one is talking about is not the one which is ordinarily associated with corporate social responsibility but in the core areas of production and marketing.

By Sidharth Mishra

For celebrated writer VS Naipaul, fame first came with the publication of his novel, ‘A House for Mr Biswas’. Wanting to write a copy on the Civil Lines bungalow rebuilt by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal as his residence, the title of the novel read long years ago kept coming back.

Last week the Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) registered a preliminary enquiry into alleged ‘irregularities and misconduct’ with respect to the construction of a new official residence for Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. The charge is that the Public Works Department(PWD) had initially issued a proposal only for the renovation and beautification of the bungalow. However, the original British era property was razed to the ground and a new bungalow built.

It’s been alleged that the PWD demolished the old structure without a survey report and constructed the new building without getting a new building plan sanctioned. Finally there is the issue of expenditure. It’s said that the PWD, which is under the Delhi government, increased the cost of renovation work at the controversial bungalow from Rs 7.62 crore to Rs 33.20 crore without any sanction.

By Sidharth Mishra

When Member of Parliament from South Delhi, Ramesh Bidhuri was making the  abusive remarks in the Lok Sabha, two very seasoned members from his party Dr Harshvardhan and Ravi Shankar Prasad were seen laughing.

The three decades long exposure covering politics, especially Delhi, has given opportunity for several interactions with these gentlemen. That Ramesh Bidhuri could speak the way he did, despite now almost a decade in Parliament, and before that in state assembly, was not surprising but that Harshvardhan and Prasad could find it to be a laughing matter surprised many.