ABDUL KALAM: ONE OF THE GREATEST PERSONALITIES OF INDIA.

Dr.APJ Kalam, The Bharat Ratna awardee, acknowledged as the father of India’s Missile Program, had a deep belief in building a better society and nation. The renowned scientist not only played a crucial role in the development of India’s first indigenous Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV-III) in the year 1980 but also played a prominent role in preparing nuclear weapon test (Pokhran-2) in 1998.  He happened to be a recipient of the Von Braun Award from the National Space Society "for recognizing his excellence in management and leadership for a space-related project in the year 2013.

The man fondly called, Missile Man, was of the opinion that for India to be a prosperous nation, we need to work on nurturing its building blocks, the children. Dr. Kalaam felt comfortable in the company of young people and shared with them his experiences. He helped them to ignite their imagination and prepared them for the future through his lectures at various institutions of India. For this purpose he began, Billion Beats, an e-paper teaching youngsters the power to dream in achieving their goals.

Dr. Kalama’s infectious personality had not only inspired Indians but also people across the globe. His birthday has been declared as, “Worlds Students Day,” by US. In 2005, Switzerland declared 26 May as, “science day” to commemorate Kalam's visit in the country.

Being true to himself he kept doing what he loved, teaching; and took his last breath delivering a lecture in Shillong Institute in 2015. Acknowledging his efforts the United States of America put their flag half down as a mark of respect.

DELHI, DID IT REALLY WORK FOR THE SECOND TIME?

 

The second phase of odd –even scheme that, kick started on 15th April, 2016 lasted for a fortnight at Delhi. Mr. Kejriwal, conveyed awareness about the scheme to deal with pollution and traffic at various towns itself at national capital.

Compared to the first trial with the odd even scheme, not much had changed in terms of rules, guidelines, and exceptions. The only changes introduced were:-

 

1) Parents ferry children to school- In India, where there is road there is chaos.”You are driving down the magnificent highways of DelhiNCR in the morning to leave your child to school on time and get caught by traffic officers for not following the rule”, Parents have to suffer the big fat fine.   Looking into all this Delhi Transport Minister Gopal Rai admitted the government is yet to address the issue of children being picked up in cars after school ends for the day.

 To end the sour minds, the irritation of parents, Delhi police presents you with flowers and chalans with a slogan,” be calm and be cool.” 

2)Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) gauges the impact of the second phase of the odd-even plan on the capital's air quality at 119 locations in and around the city. Pollution varies with time and weather conditions that have nothing to do with the odd-even scheme. Looking at the tendency in pollution police estimated and monitored, different areas of Delhi NCR — reducing hourly particulate air pollution concentrations by 10-13 per cent.

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3)       Contact the transport department at your workplace to avail a shuttle. If your workplace doesn't have such a provision, you need not worry since there is no dearth of shuttle service providers. A few names to help you get started: Shuttle, Ola, Orahi etc.

 

Last year, Thirteen-year-old Akshat Mittal came up with a rather innovative website called odd-even.com that helped people find carpool during the odd-even rule. The site, which was launched in December 2015, has now been bought by carpool site Orahi.

“The demand for taxis has  returned up on account of the odd-even traffic scheme that started on April 15 and ended April 30,Till now 30, 000 viewers has approached the sites help”  and it’s a big achievement since the launch of the website. Users who register on odd-even.com will be redirected to Orahi and they will be given the option to make online payments unlike the payment mode on odd-even.com. we are going to need carpooling more than ever and it’s actually the only sensible way to lesser traffic and pollution. Arun Bhati, chief executive officer of Orahi, told ‘The Economic Times’”

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal threatened "strict action" against over-charging cabs. The Delhi government directed the impounding of taxis charging excessive fare from the public. It also pledged to work with the Delhi government to provide reliable mobility solutions to people in the city, "especially at a time when the citizens need us the most.

It is hard to justify the odd-even rule on almost any ground. There’s not only a healthy conversation about pollution, quality and transport but also its failure most of the times. The city is paying, a high price for its new dining table conversations.