Delhi needs more smog towers!

Does Delhi need more smog towers? This question is being raised in several circles as demand for smog towers is growing in several parts of the capital city Delhi and NCR. As Delhi has faced critical situation in the recent past the administrative and environmental structure have come out with a robust ‘solution’ in form of smog towers... read more

POLL LIST, GANGRAPE & STUDENTS' AGITATION

City This Week

Finally the list is out. As the capital city is celebrating Makar Sankranti with other states and poll notification has been issued by the Election Commission, the process of announcement of name of candidates for assembly polls has started. While LJP and some other parties have already announced the names of candidates, the ruling AAP too announced the names of its candidates for all 70 assembly seats in Delhi. Other two major parties BJP and Congress too will announce their candidates in couples of days.

But the list of AAP is quite interesting. While, city’s CM heavily relying on women voters for the elections the list elaborates completely different story. The list of 70 candidates include less than 15 percent female candidates. Only nine women candidates have been accomodated in the list although 23 new faces have been included in the list. Although, 15 new candidates have been accomodated in the list but there are several allegations and counter allegations started taking place regarding corruption during the ticket distribution.

The city is already witnessing some interesting war of words between Delhi’s BJP Chief Manoj Tiwari and city’s CM Arvind Kejriwal after Bhojpuri actor turned politician Tiwari allegedly appeared in Kejriwal’s promo. Tiwari slapped rupees 500 crore legal notice on Kejriwal for defamation. The list of BJP and Congress yet to be appeared as both are waiting for each other’s strategies.  

Delhi’s much-hyped gangrape case Nirbhaya has now encountered with another twist. As Supreme court rejected curative petition of two of the convicts and High Court has clearly refused to put a stay on the death warrants of the convicts the city government has said that hanging of the convicts could not take place on the scheduled date due to technical-legal reasons. This clearly means that execution of capital punishment needs more time.

As the tussle between agitated students and university administration has started defusing the JNU and Jamia have now started academic activities. The city too has taken a sigh of relief as students of both the universities are now participating in the academic activities rather than the misleading agitations. However, demands of students and faculty are yet to be fulfilled but process of dialogue has taken place. Although some of the agitations are still taking place in the city and some of the protesters have been able to show their anguish to the PM Narendra Modi as he was going to participate in the global meet ‘Raisina Dialogue’ in New Delhi. Gobal leaders discussed several issues including climate change and Iran issue during their discussions.

JNU, NIrbhaya... Delhi preparing for polls!

Chandan Sharma

At last, death warrants for all four convicts of Nirbhaya gang rape case have been issued on Tuesday by a city court, giving the city a great sigh of relief, that jolted the entire city as well as many parts of the country. Although, the legal remedy does not end here for all the convicts but it certainly provide some relief for victim’s family and the entire women community in general for the moment.

But, it is a matter of the fact that it neither the first case of rape nor the last. National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) and National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) are full of data of such atrocities and crime against women’s dignity. But, big question still there that why such crime happens. There are different versions. Police has different theory; victims react differently, psychologists have different explanation, sociologists and anthropologists have different theories about such crimes. But one thing is certainly common that all community equivocally believe that it is a crime.

But, actual remedy begins at the basic learning place. As it was recently described by a leader during an interaction with women entrepreneurs and businesswomen. According to him, there is need to provide some value education to each and every child in schools, colleges and families. It is also needed that they should be boycotted by their families, in case they were caught indulged in such kind of activities.

Not only Nirbhaya case; Delhi also jolted by the attack on student’s at JNU. Although, it was more the clash between two ideological groups than the movement against any specific atrocities. In fact, it is prima facie seems a matter of mal-administration of the much reputed university, which is known for intellectual debates and discussions and movements rather that goons. It is yet to know that why the university administration unable to sort out the issues raised by students during the registration process that ultimately injured over 25 students including JNUSU president as well as members of both right wing and left wing student organizations.

It is another matter that it has given a big opportunity to both political leaders and Bollywood stars to come close to the young community of the university. Moreover, several student organisations of various universities. But question remains that why the two big leaders stayed away from the entire process and who were those goons? Though, police has claimed to identify the masked goons but the demand of removal of VC is gaining momentum as a senior political leaders too demanded the removal.

And the counting for the election has finally been started in the city. As date of the polling has been announced by the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sunil Arora the stage is now perfectly ready for polls. The recent attack on JNU students, the protest on the issue of CAA and NRC in the some parts of the city and Nirbhaya’s case have created a perfect atmosphere in Delhi for polls. But as Delhi has experimented several types of government including right wing BJP, centralist Congress and left oriented AAP. Now it is difficult to understand the mood of the public of the city; despite that fact that Delhi has a tendency to go with the ruling party. As the city has crossed the number of voters to 1.46 crore parties are relying on their surveys. But will these surveys actually work? There are so many factors in this concern and counting started.

(Chandan Sharma is founder of Yuvavani.com/ A pvt. initiative)

2020: QUEST FOR BETTERMENT TO CONTINUE DESPITE ODDS

2020: TEENAGE ERA OVER; HOPES ALIVE
CHANDAN SHARMA

The new year has finally arrived with a bang. Amid fear of the slowdown and a mega stimulus for the infrastructure sector by the government has, at least, gave an indication that the quest for the prosperous and happier nation and world to continue in the coming days despite all odds.

The year 2019 will be known for some of the unique and bold decisions. These decision would certainly impact the future of the entire nation. The country witnessed probably the biggest decision in the recent history or say in the modern history of India – Supreme verdict on Ayodhya temple was probably the biggest decision of over a century old conflict.

On the other hand, rise of people’s awareness about climate change and young Greta’s biggest challenge ‘How dare you’ certainly made an impact on the ruling community of the world and compelled them to seriously consider about the carbon credit and environmental protection.

The year 2019 also raised alarm for Himalayan crisis and melting of glaciers in polar regions and Himalaya. This was probably first year when people encountered with bizarre picture of international mountaineers, making beeline to climb world’s highest Mount Everest, indicating crisis of adventure tourism in the region.

Moreover, the capital city Delhi experienced a shivering cold as the city encountered with the coldest day in the century, colder than other hill stations.

Abrogation of article 370 is certainly a big step taken by the government to make India a united country and paved the way for ‘one nation one constitution’. India also added two new union territories, Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir, this year.

Promulgation of Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) is another big step despite controversies and protests by the opposition parties and youth. Although, there may be some concerns from various quarters but the decision was certainly a bold step despite all criticism. These concerns can be addressed in the future course of action. As far as protest is concerned, this was fuelled more due to misinformation and mismanagement of the administrative and communication tools and it can not be mixed with NRC or NPR.

The year 2020 is also going to the year of new political permutation and combination as opposition Congress or Congress supported (UPA) emerged as the major party in state politics in 2019. This gives so many indications for 2019 but also says that road ahead for BJP is not so smooth. The void created, by passing away of some of the political leaders like Arun Jaitley, Sheila Dikshit, Sushma Swaraj, S. Jaipal Reddy and some others, seems difficult to fill in the new year.

Not only politics, but media also faced some tough and challenging times. Several esteemed newspapers closed their editions or shut down the operations in some of the metro cities.  These include newspapers like ‘The Hindu’, ‘Deccan Chronicle’ and several others. Vernacular newspapers also forced to shut down in the cut-throat competition with electronic media and internet. Channels were not much different in this concern. This was despite the fact that several stimulus announced for the corporate sectors.

However, there are several economic challenges are still haunting the nation but Prof. Abhijit Banerjee’s Nobel prize gave some solace for India amid disappointments like crash landing of Chandrayaan-2, loss of 45 lives due to fire in Delhi, flood in Patna and many others in 2019.

There are several milestones in defence and diplomatic areas but one big achievement must be acknowledged that India emerged as a global leader in the renewable energy and telecom and its quest will continue in the era of rise of youth power despite plethora of social, political and economic challenges.  So, happy 2020!

(Chandan Sharma is founder of Yuvavani.com; A pvt. initiative)

Merry Christmas

Celebration of Christmas and preparations for new year grip Delhi's mood despite all odds.  

Citizenship Amendment: Protest in the era of misinformation

Chandan Sharma

Why the citizenship amendment act (CAA) has become so controversial? And, why the students some of the best central universities are so agitated that they had to take the route of violence to express their anguish against the law? This question also show the behaviour of the ‘failed administration’ to control a simple law and order problem and allow it to become a national issue. In fact, the Prime Minister had to intervene into the matter and appealed younger generation to be peaceful and calm.

It is a matter of the fact that the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) is now become a law after getting nod from the both the houses of the parliament (Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha) and approval from the president of India. It is also a matter of the fact that the law talks about granting of citizenship to the minority communities from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh, persecuted in their countries due to their religious belief and migrated from these neighboring countries. Certainly, it does not talk about majority community (Muslims) of these Islamic nations. 

There are several aspects of the law. Exclusion of the Muslims is the ‘big issue’, as being projected by non-NDA leaders and parties as well as student leaders of some of the universities. As the law talks about only minorities of these three nations, certainly no question of disparity arises due to religious belief. But despite the debate, that continued over 20 hours in the both the houses of the parliament, government or ruling BJP unable to spread the clear message among the people, especially among the minorities. 

This has certainly gave the chance to some of the opportunist leaders to mislead and confuse the ill-informed students and younger generation and convert the confusion into a big nationwide protest, that ultimately to benefit some of the rivals and enemies. But before going into the details of all these, it must be understood that this law does not restrict Muslims to get citizenship of India. But conditions apply everywhere, even in case of the applying for a simple ration card or aadhar card.  Moreover, a refugee, in India or anywhere else, is entitled to enjoy or get certain amenities from the concerned country. That is certainly an extra burden for that nation. As far as India is concerned, the total number of official and unofficial refugees is in millions or even in crores. The implementation of NRC in Assam revealed about 1.9 million refugees in a single state. It must be remembered that there are over 30 states in India and bordering states have large number of refugees, both officially and unofficially. Moreover, in absence of proper habitat for them these refugees become cause of socio-economical-urban complexities and put a heavy pressure on life and culture of locals. This can be understood by condition of some of the states facing acute refugee problems like North-eastern states, J&K, West Bengal, Odisha, border areas of Bihar, UP and some of the southern states and some of metro cities.  

Even if these refugees are entitled to get citizenship or granted citizenship by the state, it is a difficult task to get  them absorbed in the society. It takes decades or even generations to get absorb in the society. But at the same time it is a matter of the fact that these communities are darling of regional parties. They use them as vote bank during the polls. It is also a fact that citizen of other nations sometimes considered as the normal citizens of India and not as refugees. So, it is not that the issue of refugees or migrant refugees is not going to resolve completely by this issue but the new law will certainly open a new window of solution for a large number of refugee populations. As the law entitles Christians, Sikh, Parsi, Buddhist and Jain community to get citizenship in India, the intelligence report also gave a rough calculation of the number of such minorities in these nations. If go by the calculation or estimates, it does not cross 50,000 marks. In the country like India it is not difficult to accommodate them. 

But this also become a reason to protest. But here it must be noted that these protest mostly on ethnic line as the mainstream political parties, sitting in opposition, unable to stop the bill in the parliament or unable to send it to the select committee, so that a wider discussion could take place. 

But democracy is also about raising of voice not for suppression. Whatever happened in some of the universities including Jamie Millia Islamia in New Delhi or AMU or some other institutions, including Assam is an example of ‘failed administration’ on the issue of maintaining law and order. Students or younger generation may be confused or misled by some miscreants; but mishandling the new generation in such a manner indicates two things clearly  - 1. The ‘failed administration’ is paving way for emergence of new generation of rebellion against state and 2. The ‘public administration’ still living in British era of suppression, that invited unnecessary attention from the global communities and give a chance to criticise the democratic process of the country and raises question of right to protest, raise voice and discussion on several issues in a peaceful and democratic manner. 

However, Union Home Minister Amit Shah has come out to defend the action taken against protestors after taking stock of situation and Supreme Court too has refused to put a stay on the Citizen Amendment. This is despite the fact that opposition leaders gave a representation before the President of India seeking withdrawal of the law. And, UN Chief Antonio Guterres’ in his message advocated all basic amenities for migrants on International Migrants Day. But, democratic rights in a democratic nation like India need right to protest peacefully, debate and discuss and raise the voice for people. Educational institutions like colleges and universities and other institutions are probably the best forum for free and fair discussion to understand best and worst of any important issue. Government or administration may like or not but their people too come from the similar system of debate, discussion (and democratic way to raise their voice). Unfortunately, human being is not robot.       

(Chandan Sharma is founder of Yuvavani.com, A pvt. Initiative)      

Low GDP: FM discusses with RBI Gov.

As the GDP growth has reached to worrisome level of 4.5% for the first time after Modi government took over the charge, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das called on Union Finance Minister to discuss the issue.
The latest data shows that the rate of GDP growth reached to lowest level in six years.(yuva vani.com is a pvt. Initiative)

Delhi pollution: Time to move ahead

Chandan Sharma

So. What is the plan for Delhi now? The city, that faced severe pollution crisis for several days or say over three weeks. Over 1.3 crore residents of Delhi have been denied fundamental right to live (and to breathe) amid breathlessness and hazardous smog for several days. Union government got a huge jolt as the parliamentarians discussed the issue in the both the houses of the parliament (Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha) continuously for three days to awake the government and people of the country from deep slumber and to take appropriate action to tackle the issue of climate change, pollution crisis and health emergency. It is another matter that the issue was sidelined amid some unprecedented political developments took place in Mumbai.

Even the Supreme Court of India has to intervene into matter and made sharpest comments on the administration and government on failure of tackling the crisis. And, Union Minister of Environment Prakash Javadekar had to make a detailed statement in the parliament on the issue. But, despite all the issue yet to be resolved. Air Quality Index (AQI) in different parts of Delhi is still not going down to normal level or healthier level. Interesting fact is that other metropolitan cities like Mumbai or Bangalore or some others are not facing such a severe crisis despite having several industrial units in these cities or their adjoining areas. In some areas level of pm 2.5 is much below than 100 mark that indicate healthier AQI.

It must be noted climate change is probably the biggest challenge around the globe and so the pollution too. The solution has finally been worked out in form of ‘air purifier towers’, use of mask, odd-even and some other tougher measures. But, here we must understand that Delhi has hardly any big polluting industrial units. Even, coal based power generation units too are now converted into gas-based power plants. Certainly, a large amount of pollutants come from adjoining state as large number of industries are operated in the adjoining areas apart from stubble burning.

Long ago, the union minister Prakash Javadekar, talked about pollution sucker or a kind of air pollution treatment plants, mounted over chimneys or such polluting units. The minister is now a minister of heavy industry too. So it much easier for the government to take action in this regard and force such units to install such environmental friendly units. This will a great help to reduce air pollution. 

Administrative steps and better governance will certainly yield results if it is done with co-ordination with other NCR states. On the occasion of ‘world climate strike day’, when world’s large number of younger generation came on street to fight their own right to breathe in a cleaner and healthier air and environmentalists and top leaders gathered for better climate in Spain in next week it is certainly an important step to stop some countries (including US) to ignore the issue of pollution and climate emergency. 

(Chandan Sharma is founder of Yuvavani.com)     ( yuvavani.com is a pvt. Initiative Not a part of AIR/any outlet/outfit/ppp )

    

Lithium-ion batteries soon to be matter of past!

Chandan Sharma

Is lithium-ion battery; that bagged Nobel award in 2019, going to be a matter of past? At least, new researches in this concern indicate so. Interesting fact is that the Indian policy makers believe that these batteries are not suitable for Indian requirements.

This has been indicated by NITI Aayog’s senior officials during a discussion on the issue in New Delhi. According to them “India needs new technology which suits Indian environment and requirements. It may be Aluminium batteries or hydrogen fuel or something else.”

According to him, though lithium ion batteries are working in e-vehicles but considering the requirement, weather and environment researchers should consider some new technology for the future.

Scientists and engineers, working in the field of the e-vehicles say that the lithium-ion batteries are not suitable option for public transport as it is very heavy and expensive. Moreover, recharging of these batteries is still a big issue for manufacturers of such vehicles.

It is notable that Delhi is already working on a plan to introduce hydrogen fuel for public transportation facilities, considering the volume of pollution on roads and number of daily passengers in the NCR areas.

It is notable that over 40 lakh vehicles are operating in the capital city on daily basis. The scheme like odd-even and others emergency measures unable to yield enough results to reduce pollution in the city.

It is an interesting fact that the metro train (DMRC) that has been mandated to provide high speed public transportation system, is now working extensively on a plan to ply e-rickshaws to ferry its passengers to their homes. This is certainly a move to distract its main task to provide passengers a comfortable high speed public transportation system, despite the fact that the move is intended to enhance revenue of the company. The company is already making huge money from the outdoor advertising (mostly of Kejriwal government); snatching bread and butter of dying print media and online and electronic media. Needless to say that DAVP plays an important role in this concern by authorizing these government ventures to convert into advertising ventures.

But it is a matter of fact that metro is least polluting public transport system. It will be better if it remains a public transport system than the advertising kiosks.

(Chandan Sharma is founder of Yuvavani.com; A pvt. initiative not part of AIR or any ppp)

AIR POLLUTION: DELHI NEEDS PERMANENT SOLUTION

Chandan Sharma

As an unprecedented pollution crisis engulfed the National Capital Delhi, people started questioning that why the capital city has been chocking again and again despite several warnings and preventive measures. The situation is so grim that a health emergency declared in the city and several emergency measures took place to reduce the impact of air pollution in the city.

Although, much has been debated on the national and local media and even, Supreme Court had to take suo moto cognizance on the matter and expressed anguish on the issue on Wednesday. The apex court’s order is an eye-opener for top brass of the various adjoining states and Delhi. It not only rebuked top officials of Delhi, Punjab and Haryana for their failure to curb the pollution but also gave an action plan to execute within a given time frame of seven days so that an emphatic control could be seen on pollution.

Here it must be noted that Delhi’s people are still facing the burnt of odd-even scheme as half of the population are unable to use their cars due to strict rationing of the vehicles on the road and hefty fines on violation. According to an estimate about twenty lakh vehicles have been staying away during the period of implementation of odd-even scheme. Certainly, this provides some relief to the residents of Delhi but the question remains that why the city faced severe pollution on Sunday and Saturday as there is not much crowd on the road due to weekend holidays. Interestingly, the apex court has also raised serious questions on the logic of implementation of odd-even scheme and asked that why people were dying due to pollution and related ailments.

This must be noted that although the impact of such kind of severe pollution has not been recorded or researched in Delhi as yet. But the condition can be understood by the fact that the government distributed about five million masks among school children and that was 24-hours ahead of the distribution schedule (1^st November). A health emergency declared in the capital and if go by the data the local health centres and hospitals witnessed 30-40 percent spike in the pollution related ailments among the patients.

According to a UN report, although the impact of the pollutants cannot be seen immediately but it is a silent killer and it can cause even cancer of lung and respiratory system in the future. According to world body, although it reflects the effect of climate change but there are several immediate impact on human body and it can cause irritation in eyes, breathlessness, increase in the intensity of Asthma and other heart related problems and many others.

Actually, the problem is not just poisonous gases like Carbon dioxide, Carbon monoxide, Nitrogen oxide, Sulphur or other gases but the unprecedented increase in micro pollutant particles like PM2.5 or PM 10 in the atmosphere. These pollutants does not only affect our lungs or respiratory systems permanently but also create a haze or smog in the atmosphere and city reduced to a gas chamber. This year the AQI of the city based on PM 2.5 crossed even 1000 marks in some of the areas of Delhi. 

Although, intermittent drizzling helped the city to a great extent and emergency measures too helped a lot. But the city yet to recover from the nightmare of pollution completely. And, city needs a permanent solution in this concern so that the national capital does not choke again. 

(yuvavani.com is an independent pvt. initiative & it does not belong to AIR or any outlet/outfit/ppp)

(Chandan Sharma is founder of Yuvavani.com)   

Killer storm back again

PM in poll mode again; targets rural community, reveals plans to determine MSP

 By CTW

It may seem like an exaggeration but Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in the poll mode, again. In his 42^nd episode of his ‘Mann ki baat’ the PM addressed the nation as usual but his main target audience were rural and farming community this time. Addressing the nation he has not only addressed the farming community, the largest community of the country but also revealed the prospective plan to decide the ‘Minimum Support Price’ for agricultural produces. This was probably first time that the PM has openly spoken about the exact idea of MSP. He also spoke about various agriculture-related issues at length during his address.

“It has been decided that the MSP of notified crops will be fixed at least one and a half times of their cost. If I may elaborate on this, MSP will include labour  cost of other workers employed, expenses incurred on own animals and cost of animals and machinery taken on rent, cost of seeds, cost of each type of fertilizer used, irrigation cost, land revenue paid to the State Government, interest paid on working capital, ground rent in case of leased land and not only this but also the cost of labour of the farmer himself or any other person of his family who contributes his or her labour in agricultural work will also be added to the cost of production. Moreover, an extensive exercise on agricultural reforms is being undertaken across the country in order to ensure that our farmers get a fair price for their crop”, the PM said.

This was the first radio address by the PM after the decisive poll results of Rajya Sabha elections that gave BJP a clear edge in the upper house of the Parliament. Extending the greeting of the RamNavami to the people the PM preferred to speak about the feedback first and later on he came on the subsequent issues like water problem, issues related to farming and education, health and others. But the issue related to the farming community remained core issue for the PM this time. He also referred a large number of letters received from the children talking about several issues including water crisis. The PM also talked about the preparations about International Yoga Day and 150^th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi and greeted people for Mahavir Jayanti and Vaishakhi too. Praising the role of Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar in building of Modern India, the PM exhorted people to join the celebration of Dr. Ambedkar’s anniversary.

 “On the occasion of the birth anniversary of Dr. Ambedkar from April 14 to May 5 ‘Gram-Swaraj Abhiyan,’ is being organized. Under the aegis of this campaign, separate programmes on village development, poverty amelioration and social justice will be held throughout India. I urge you all to be a part of this campaign”, the PM said. However, the Prime Minister preferred to stay away from making any kind of comment on the ongoing debate on facebook or Aadhar data and its security related issues, during his address, showing his clear strategy to address the rural and semi-urban people and not the high tech community, targeted by leaders of other parties.

Delhi to induct 1000 electric buses for public transport

By CTW

The capital city Delhi is going to be the first city having largest fleet of the electric buses. According to the city budget presented on Thursday, the government has promised to induct 1000 electric buses in the city's transportation system. This number is the highest among any cosmopolitan's public transportation system.
The city already has largest fleet of CNG operated buses. Presenting the budget, city's Finance Minister also announced to allocate 26 percent of its allocations in the budget for education.

Heritage Metro: Delhi finds spl. reason to celebrate Eid

Chandan Sharma

 

Delhi has at least one reason to celebrate the Eid in a big way. Eid is known as the biggest festival for Muslim but this year Eid is really has been very special for the capital city as Heritage Metro took off in the auspicious month of Ramadan.

“We are really thankful to Metro man E. Sreedharan and government who planned to bring the elite transport system to old Delhi”, says Irfan, a resident of Old Delhi area. 

It is notable that Heritage Metro line was flagged off on 28^th May. The line connects Old Delhi with rest of the city. Old Delhi is also known as the most congested and populous area of Delhi with the historical areas like Red Fort, Chandni Chowk, Jama Masjid and many other historical place and centuries old commercial hub. The Metro line connects all these important area.

The old city is also known as the habitat of Muslim and traders community, most of them connect themselve with old Mughal empire. Mirza Ghalib, The biggest poet of Urdu literature to used to stay in this area. Historical documents say that the last Mughal empire or Bahadur Shah Zafar too used to be a dispel of the Mirza Ghalib.

Traditions and history apart, the heritage line has eased communication of the local people to the rest of the city. Connectivity to Jama Masjid, the biggest mosque of the country, too has eased to a lot during the Ramadan. As a result, number to devotees too has increased with the expansion of the heritage line.

“Though metro line used to connect several areas of old Delhi but this has touched the old city in a big manner”, says Akhtar. It is now much easier to reach the places like Fatehpuri Masjid, Jama Masjid and even best eateries of the Delhi.  

(Author is founder of Yuvavani.com)

DELHI: THE CITY OF HERITAGE

CHANDAN SHRAMA
Delhi is a city of  historical monuments, building and heritage. Historians unanimously accepts that the city has been destroyed several times and resurrected with new enthusiasm. Even the noted journalist and columnist Kushwant Singh accepted this fact, whose family had been associated with the development of Connought Place, the heart of the city.

Historians say that Purana Quila (old fort) is probably the oldest structure in the city. Historical evidences show its existence since the era of Mahabharata. There is a plaque inside the old fort that depict the story that how a village, known as Indrapat, was existed before the place was taken over by ASI.
The period of Mahabharata is about 3000 BC old. In a way the city Delhi is at least 5000 year old.
Raja Deen Dayal, an eminent artist and photographer during the British era has made beautiful landscape of the city. His work is a memorable work not just for Delhi but other areas too. Those, who are interested in the city, must go through his artistic works. Delhi meri shaan, beyond doubt.
(Author is founder of yuvavani.com)