Some story updates (18 December 2005)

Submitted by Pam Baker on Sun, 2005-12-18 04:48.
Some story updates (18 December 2005)

Today's paper announced that Amitabh Bachchan is out of the hospital after a successful surgery for diverticulitis. So you can all rest easy on that one.

The photo is the results of the poll that the Times of India did following the corruption sting. 70% of people think that zero or less than 10% of politicians are honest.

Besides this sting, the paper has daily articles on various sorts of corruption. A big one just now is that the Municipal Corporation of Delhi is starting to demolish illegal buidlings, following a court order that the zoning laws must be enforced. These are mostly extensions to existing buildings that have in many cases been built out over the side walk, or have added a storefront onto a residential building. To quote the Times article: "People here turned up on the street in large numbers and cursed the civic body for first letting the illegal constructions flourish for a price and then turning up to demolish them."

Page 2 of the same paper has an article on gasoline adulteration, additives that stretch the volume of the gasoline, so they can sell more. This has several ill effects: cars engines clog up, gas mileage goes down so people pay more, most of the additives are pollutants (and the air pollution is quite bad here) and the public loses tax money because apparently the tax is put on when the gasoline leaves the refinery, not when it leaves the pump. A petrol station owner admitted to the journalist that he had been putting in additives, but he says he has to because when he gets his allotment from the refinery, it is always at least 5% less actual volume than what he has supposedly been sent. Where that goes isn't said, although eveaporation could only account for 0.2 to 0.6% loss. Six stations have been proved guilty this year but all are still operating.

And so it goes.

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