Azadpur traders reject DeMo

Syed Ali Ahmed

With the BJP failing to win a single seat in elections to the marketing committee of Asia’s biggest fruit and vegetable wholesale market, Azadpur, held last week, it is clear that traders have given a thumbs down to demonetistion which has affected business.

Of the total 18 seats, elections were held for 17. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) won 14 seats, despite allegations of corruption levelled against the husband of party MLA Bandana Kumari, who had to resign as Deputy Speaker, Delhi Assembly. The Congress won the remaining three seats.

A market committee member said more than 80 per cent traders had voted for AAP. He said demonetisation had hit business in the wholesale market by 40 per cent. It is to be seen if the traders show similar anger in Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Goa and Uttarakhand where elections are to be held early next year. While admitting that demonetisation had affected trading, a BJP leader claimed it would have little affect on the coming Assembly elections.

Urdu calligraphy

The Delhi Urdu Academy is making efforts to revive the forgotten art of Urdu calligraphy. For printing periodicals in Urdu and Persian, publishers were wholly dependent on calligraphers prior to the computer age. The entire text was written and composed manually. They learnt the art at Ghalib Academy in Nizamuddin area run by the Taraqqi Urdu Board, now known as the National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language. But the institute was closed in 2002.

The Delhi Urdu Academy is now trying to revive Urdu calligraphy. It runs a two-year diploma course with 25 students. Admission is based on a simple Urdu writing test and an interview. The mnimum qualification is matriculation. Selected candidates are provided a scholarship of Rs 500 per month.

Eco warriors

Environment activists have opposed the East Delhi Municipal Corporation’s decision to have a landfill site along Pushta Road as well as other municipal processing facilities on the Yamuna floodplain. Yamuna activist Manoj Misra has written a letter to Delhi Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal against the move.

He has said, “The site being on the riverbed violates all legal provisions, including the Water Act, the Environment Protection Act and the Waste Management Rules.”

According to Misra, the DDA’s plan is to develop a series of wetlands at this site. “The National Green Tribunal also wants to develop water bodies to store floodwaters at the site. Can there be a more senseless, dangerous and illogical plan than this?,” the activists’s letter reads.