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Indian Express
12-07-2025
- Climate
- Indian Express
‘Even near Rs 100-crore homes on Golf Course Road, this is Gurgaon's reality: Residents slam civic apathy after rain
Furniture floating in murky water, a car half-submerged on a flooded street — these were visuals from a video that a Gurgaon woman shared online after water entered her home due to the relentless rain that battered the city for nearly four hours on Wednesday night. 'I live near Golf Course Road — the area known for its upscale high-rises like DLF Camellias, where homes are sold for Rs 100 crore. But even here, this is the harsh reality of Gurugram,' she wrote in a post on Instagram. She also wrote, '… what truly broke me was what I found inside my home… Everything that was on the floor — furniture, belongings — was floating, soaked, and destroyed. I have no words left. Just pain. Just disbelief. This is not just water damage. It's emotional damage. And it's real.' The woman's plight resonates with several residents of Gurgaon, who battle civic apathy each monsoon. And this year was no different. Wednesday's downpour — 103 mm of rain in just 90 minutes — laid bare the city's fragile civic infrastructure yet again after heavy rain caused widespread waterlogging, traffic chaos, and property damage. The Indian Express visited three localities in the city to speak to residents and take stock of the situation. Sector 55 On Friday afternoon, students and parents carefully navigated large, water-filled potholes on a service road outside Gurugram Public School. Just two days earlier, this stretch — now caked in silt — resembled a murky swimming pool, with cars half-submerged. Ram Avtar waited outside for his child. He had come on a two-wheeler from Wazirabad in Sector 52. His car got stuck on a service lane in the area Wednesday night. 'I had to leave my car at the entrance of the sector at night, then I called a crane to tow it the next morning,' he said. 'The government has not put in place a system yet (to tackle such issues), which they should have already done a long time ago… I doubt they will do so in the future, too,' Avtar added. Anil Sharma, a resident of Sushant Lok 2 in Sector 55, fumed at the lack of amenities. 'Golf Course Road is a globally recognised icon. But we pay taxes like England and get amenities like this… Where does all that tax money go if the corporation can't even provide basic services?' added Sharma, an IB teacher at Pathways World School. On Wednesday, his Swift car got stuck for hours while he was returning from the Golf Course Road to Sector 55. 'I had to pay more than Rs 10,000 to service my car,' he exclaimed. Yogendra, who runs a real estate office nearby, said it's a yearly problem. 'What can we do? What option is left? We have complained a lot of times, the corporation clicked photos and promised to fix the issue — and nothing happened,' he said. Vinita Sinha, President of the Sector 55 Residents' Welfare Association, said the whole city is floating after just a day of heavy rain. 'Waterlogging is a chronic problem here. The roads are all dug up, and after the rain, the loose soil spills onto the road and makes them unserviceable.' She added that no proper desilting of drains takes place here. When contacted, Municipal Corporation of Gurugram's PRO, S S Rohila, said the executive engineer concerned will oversee deployment of staff to alleviate the issue effectively and speedily, and get the drains cleaned and desilted. Rajiv Chowk underpass Around 10 km away, the Rajiv Chowk underpass — which connects to the BSNL complex and Mini Secretariat — was completely waterlogged on Friday, with water reaching up to the signboards. Large barricades had been placed to block entry. Hawkers nearby said the underpass has remained shut since the onset of the monsoon. 'It's been closed since Wednesday — it happens every year. Authorities just shut it down in advance now,' said one vendor. Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority PRO, Neha Sharma, said the stretch comes under the NHAI, and the pedestrian underpass is generally closed during monsoon. 'Last year too, the Deputy Commissioner had ordered closure of all non-motorised transport underpasses ahead of the rain as such structures are not equipped to handle stormwater since they lack specialised drains,' she said. Sector 14, Zone 5 On Friday, residents were still trying to remove water that had flooded their homes. In one ground-floor house, mattresses were moved aside, chairs stacked on tables, and the washing machine was running nonstop. 'I'm washing clothes I never even got to wear. They were stored in a cabinet under the bed. We didn't have time to move them when the water rushed in,' said Shakti Tuteja, a resident who has since shifted to the first floor. Residents claimed this is the oldest residential society, and asked how the corporation could forget about them. 'Authorities highlight and solve problems on Golf Course Road, but what about us?' asked Kalyan Singh Sharma, a resident who is also a social worker. Houses, mostly two- to three-storey ones, are built around a small park — which gets submerged after a few spells of rain. The water has now receded from the park — leaving behind garbage, silt and mud and a foul smell hanging in the air. The garden has five rainwater harvesting systems, with a sixth currently under construction. 'Why did they start the work right before the monsoon? It's now a breeding ground for mosquitoes,' said one resident. According to residents, the existing systems have limited capacity due to silt buildup, causing rainwater to collect in the park. From there, it gushes through the railings and floods the low-lying lane where their houses are located. 'I tied a bedsheet from one end of the gate to the other, hoping it would filter out the silt if water came in — but it still ended up in our washrooms,' said Dogra Kumar, showing a photo on his phone of silt settled in his hall after the water receded. Cockroaches and frogs, he added, also entered the house.
New Indian Express
28-05-2025
- New Indian Express
Auto-lifters' gang busted, four nabbed from Punjab
NEW DELHI: Delhi Police has busted an inter-state syndicate of auto-lifters and arrested four Punjab-based receivers of stolen vehicles. They have been identified as Avtar Singh (40), Harpreet Singh (32), Paramdeep (42), and Manpreet (29), officials said on Tuesday. A total of 21 luxury cars were recovered from the accused. According to police, they studied the pattern of vehicle thefts, including timing and CCTV footage from various cases, which revealed that the accused mostly operate at midnight and primarily target luxury cars. It was found that some receivers from Punjab were active in Delhi, taking stolen cars to Punjab and selling them, especially in border districts. 'On May 7, information was received that Avtar would come in a stolen car with a fake number and go to Punjab. A trap was laid, and the vehicle was intercepted. Avtar and Harpreet were inside the car. Upon checking the engine and chassis numbers, the car was found to have been stolen from Saket,' Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Apoorva Gupta said. Both accused disclosed that they receive stolen cars and sell them in Amritsar and Ludhiana. They used to receive cars from Dashrath and Raj Kumar. The recovered car had also been received from them a few days earlier.
Time of India
04-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
This Avtar helps women play multiple roles
Can a job interview trigger an entrepreneurial journey ? Ask Dr Saundarya Rajesh , founder-president, . About 25 years ago, Saundarya attended a interview for a leading telecom firm. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now "The interviewer (GM marketing) told me the ideal candidate should be able to put in long hours, de-prioritize the home, and should not have had any breaks in resume," she remembers. "They preferred career-primary men. The interviewer offered me the job, but made it look like a favour, and the salary was below what my experience merited." It was "the breaking point". Saundarya was keen on rejoining after a child-rearing break. "When I was ready, I realized workplaces were not built for women, much less the Indian woman professional (IWP)," she says. "Firms offered little or no flexibility or empathy. Remote work was unheard of. Career breaks were seen as the end of the road." Avtar, an HR services firm focussed on enabling IWPs re-enter the corporate world, was "born out of my struggle to find a suitable role post motherhood," she says. The telecom stint highlighted this was a much larger issue, and a silent one. "Thousands like me quit because workplaces weren't supportive. I decided to change this, and that's how Avtar was born in 2000," she says. Today, Avtar helps organizations focus on talent strategies to make workplaces more inclusive. Saundarya's C-Suite journey has been about understanding the "unique" career path that the IWP follows. "Her need to take on many 'avatars' is far more accentuated," she explains. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now "We are referring to her ability to hold multiple personas at the same time. Is this strenuous? Of course. Does this create a lot of interpersonal conflict? For sure. And I learnt this by experiencing it firsthand." Her interest in bringing about this revolution is partly rooted in story-telling of her girlhood days in a large joint family in Puducherry. "My dad would gather all the children around and tell us stories from the Mahabharata, Ramayana and Puranas. I would retell the stories with plot twists to turn wronged characters into empowered heroes." Championing the underdog was at the heart of the journey. "When I needed an ally who could create systemic changes, I harkened back to the time when my story had a different, happy ending," she says. Given how many portfolios she has juggled – from a stint in Citibank to creating content for Doordarshan and AIR, and even teaching in a college – the company name sits right with her. Today she balances her work as a CEO with meeting deadlines as a published author. She has seen her contributions change dramatically in the last 25 years. Initially, Avtar was "like a startup, and together with my small team, I handled it all," she remembers. But now, with a 100-plus team, her job has evolved. "My focus has shifted to strategy, supervision and subject-matter expertise," she says. However, her leadership style has remained the same – one of assertive empathy. Experience has guided her to better "anticipate change" and "set boundaries. I now have the confidence to say no." As a CEO in Tamil Nadu, which has the highest number of working women and the highest number of women entrepreneurs in India, she has a perspective of what needs to be done. She says. "The companies must create a supportive work culture where women can thrive, while the govt could provide tax incentives/grants to enterprises that prioritize gender inclusivity."
