Health(y) competition

This year,the state government is leaving no stone unturned for the success of School Health Programme (SHP),run by the state’s Education and Health and Family Welfare department. Several directives have been issued to the concerned authorities in the Education and Health departments to ensure it’s a fruitful exercise. Apart from students,teachers and principals,it has been made compulsory for all mothers to be present at the school during health check-ups for interaction with the medical staff,who can also give them some health and diet tips for children. Also,for health awareness among students and 100 per cent attendance in schools,several competitions have been planned for them. The annual programme is scheduled to start from November 22 across private and government primary,secondary and higher secondary schools,anganwadi centres and even religious educational institutes covering children bwteen 0-14 years of age. However,many from within the functionary are seeing these “extra” efforts to have a direct link

with the state government’s claims that this year the Centre,too,has adopted Gujarat’s initiative of School Health Programme.

Locating trouble<\b>

A well-constructed and spacious building,the Bhaskarrai Pandya Municipal Community Hall,at Bodakdev in Ahmedabad was inaugurated last month. It has got every thing except for a name plate at its entrance. This makes locating the hall quite a task because no one in the vicinity seems to have a clue about its location. So,it can easily take around 30 minutes to locate it. Looks like the AMC,which has built it at the cost of Rs 1.20 crore,forgot to put a name plate at the very entrance of the hall after it was inaugurated by State Revenue Minister Anandiben Patel last month. One would only hope that the civic body does something about it so that people don’t have trouble locating it.

Rank and fine<\b>

The Ahmedabad Police Commissioner recently issued a press release which contained details of different ranks of traffic police officers who were empowered to collect fine from the traffic offenders. The release stated that police officers of head constable,assistant sub-inspector,police sub-inspector and above ranks could collect the fine and no one else. Giving further details,the release even gave colourful description of different uniforms worn by different officers of the police force as well as those who assist them on roads like Home Guards and Traffic Brigade. Simultaneously,the release made it clear that apart from the above-mentioned officers of police department,the Home Guards and Traffic Brigade personnel were not empowered to either give a memo or to collect fine from the public. It also asked the general public to inform the traffic helpline number,1095,or the police control room number,100,in case somebody who was not empowered was collecting fine from them.