Don't commit NUISANCE here

Wed, Jul 30 01:25 AM

After changing the face of Central Park, after changing the skyline of East Delhi, after changing the way we travel to Purani Dilli, Delhi Metro is now trying to change what many may feel is impossible: making Delhiwallas behave. Early this month, DMRC's flying squads nabbed 63 people in one single day.

Their crime: leaning against the door. There were other offenders, too: 256 for occupying seats reserved for women, 121 for grabbing seats reserved for senior citizens, and 228 for squatting.

It is perhaps the first time that Delhiites are actually being 'penalised' for behaving badly in public places. The flying squads, called Alpha, Beta, Charlie and Delta teams, look for people who don't behave.

That could mean squatting, eating, drinking, spitting, or even playing loud music (folks, check your mobile phone tune!). Those nabbed are first counselled; but if they show resistance, the next stop could be the magistrate's chamber.

In a city where swearing is common, where men often grope women on buses, where autowallas bajao bewafai songs (at a deafening volume), where men freely pee on pavements, where people have family dinners on public lawns and leave a ring of litter around the 'dining space', fining a male commuter for grabbing a woman's seat - if not the woman herself - is indeed revolutionary. What if these flying squads are extended to Blueline buses, airports, bazaars, malls and even streets? Can Delhi become a model city of good behaviour? "It will take some time, but I think it is possible," says an optimistic Anuj Dayal, DMRC's spokesperson.

Author Rahul Bajaj, however, is not excited. "We do have all these behavioral problems, but I guess that in these times of serial bomb blasts, all the resources should be directed towards the security of commuters.

" DJ Kary Arora, on the other hand, says she'd be thrilled if she were a part of such a squad. "I'd raid buses and catch people bothering women," she says.

"If some guy is reading a book and the person next to him is playing loud music, I will ask the music man to buy headphones." Kary, who has her own car, would also love to counsel the horn-happy drivers who are apparently colour blind - they can't see when the traffic light turns red and honk incessantly at the cars in front of them.

Theatre director Rudradeep Chakraborty, too, votes for flying squads."Kolkatans and Mumbaikars have less tolerance than Delhiites for unruly manners.

And here, that easily includes swearing and beating." Chakraborty recounts a scene he saw while going to Noida recently: a passenger was being "thrown out" of a bus and "no one reacted".

Going by the unbridled aggression of this city, don't be surprised if even flying squad members are tossed out. Another theatre actor, Danish Hussain, a frequent Metro traveller, says that any right-thinking citizen would welcome such a squad.

He believes that if people are transplanted to neat places, they automatically start behaving in a more becoming manner. "When the Metro first came, everyone predicted that its shine wouldn't last beyond six months, that we Delhiites would deface it just as we do to any public property.

But that hasn't been the case," he says. "If we can make our other services as effective and clean as the Metro, then public decency, aided by so-called alpha teams, would certainly be the winner.

" "If the authorities make the streets pothole-free and provide litter bins at strategic places, then people would themselves develop civic pride," says a senior bureaucrat who does not wish to be identified. In other words: Delhiwallas know etiquette but if you want them to show it, you need to give them Metro-like services.

And flying squads.

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