Home

Serial bomb blasts dampen Diwali spirit in Delhi
by Ashok Dixit

     New Delhi: Saturday's serial blasts in prominent market places has resulted in a pall of gloom and despondency descending on the Indian capital New Delhi, even as a red alert has been sounded to nab the possible perpetrators. The blasts have dampened the spirits of Delhiites who were eagerly looking forward to celebrating Diwali, the festival of lights, in a grand manner through shopping sprees and hotel and restaurant hopping. With markets, shops, restaurants, cinema halls, multiplexes all shutting down on Saturday evening, and citizens having second thoughts about venturing out of their homes, anticipated Diwali- related business and profits in the Indian capital is likely to take a huge hit, and for all practical purposes, this time the festival of lights will be a staid one. People, especially women, who have been spending the past few days buying an assortment of jewellery, have stopped venturing out to the various malls that grace the National Capital Region (NCR) to buy the much sought after branded items as gifts for their relatives, friends and colleagues.

     With life at such a premium, there is also a deep reluctance to go for a drive in cars. Security is so tight and forbidding that it is taking hours to reach home. Police are checking almost all vehicles at barriers that they have set up within the city and at borders leading out of Delhi. At the two airports -- Indira Gandhi international airport and the domestic airport -- scared passengers, both foreign and Indian, have been rushing and queueing up to board all available outbound flights, to head for safety. Airline ground staff were in a pretty harassed state, clearing passengers at ticketing counters, baggage counters and customs etc. Over 40 people are feared dead and more than 70 have been injured at the last official count.The injured have been admitted in the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, the Ram Manohar Lohia, Safdarjang and Lady Hardinge Hospitals. All emergency staff has been called to duty. Police vans and ambulances have rushed to the blast sites.

     The blasts seem to be the handiwork of terrorists targeting the Capital during the festive season. IED may have been used for the blasts. There was prior information that terrorists may target the Capital during Diwali. Delhi's police chief, Dr. K.K.Paul, has asked people to be vigilant. He said unclaimed objects lying anywhere should not be touched and information about these should be passed on to the police immediately. Delhi's Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit also visited the hospitals and the injured. Talking to mediapersons, she said that the Delhi government would extend an ex-gratia worth three lakh to the family of each of the deceased and Rs 50,000 would be offered to the injured. At least 10 persons have been detained in the wake of the blasts. Five of them were picked up from the New Delhi Railway Station and the others from other railway stations and bus terminals, police sources said.

NOTE: The domestic and foreign travellers and tourists can, apart from reading news reports relating to their tourism destination in India can find information about hotel, airline, entertainment, cuisine, cinema, fashion, life style, ayurveda, ayurvedic massage parlours, yoga yogic health parlour, meditation centres etc in Indian cities towns in newspapers or dailies published from various places in India. A traveller or tourist can look up a daily or newspaper from the list for generally dependable info. There are budget hotels at every destination and with a boom in aviation, airlines have become cheaper and available to remote areas.

List of Leading Indian News Papers

Travel News

Travel Sites:

Overseas Tourist
Offices

Tourist offices
in India