Drip, drip, drip

Suddenly it is the season of spies. The shock of a woman IFS Officer Madhuri Gupta in Islamabad being caught passing information on to Pakistani handlers has rocked the local establishment.

Suddenly it is the season of spies. The shock of a woman IFS Officer Madhuri Gupta in Islamabad being caught passing information on to Pakistani handlers has rocked the local establishment. For once, though it looks like the counter intelligence folks were happily ahead of the race. How deep and how far the spying, like the current tapping controversy goes is uncharted territory. But given that the NTRO like the RAW is shadowy and silent, the truth sometimes stays conveniently obscured.

Delhi can get tight lipped, but as far as local phone taps go the tongues are wagging alright, every minute. It has, after all, opened up many cans of worms. Nobody is quite sure who has been tapped and what has been recorded.u00a0

While a Pawar IPL CD is whispered about, many other politicians went strangely quiet on sensitive issues and Pranab Mukherjee has pulled his Budget through with relative comfort. This they say, thanks to intelligence agencies and covert devices.

Parking blues
Here we go again! Old Dilli continues to stump the authorities when it comes to undertaking development works. Numerous plans mooted periodically to decongest the heritage space Chandni Chowk have come to naught or have been ensnarled in procedural hurdles. The government is now mulling yet another stab at this old, lingering problem. Delhi's urban development minister AK Walia now wants civic agencies to explore constructing multilevel parking spaces to ease congestion in the area.

In the past seven years though, the municipal authorities were to construct 14 multi-level parking lots elsewhere in the 'new city', but have managed to start work only on one site.

Mumbai's decongestion problems and its old city are far more severe than Dilli's. So when that state government clears plans for 13 multi-level parking lots in Mumbai, we hope Mumbaikars' experience is happier than Dilli's.