Ringside view

Green Katha

We have heard about the Satynarayan Katha being performed here. But Giants Group Ahmedabad North Saheli came up with a novel idea of holding “Vriksha Narayan Katha’ in Naranpura area in association with Arasuri Ambaji Mata Devsthan Trust. The Green Katha was narrated by pandits from the temple town of Ambaji. Needless to say,a large number of saplings were distributed as ‘prasad’ at this Katha. What was more amazing was that the Banaskantha District Collector R J Patel graced the occasion for more than four hours! He administered a pledge to all those present about preservation of trees.

Fine hurdles

Employees in public as well as private sectors are given targets to achieve and all of them face difficulties in achieving the same. Recently a traffic police officer posted in Gandhinagar while talking on a friendly terms explained an interesting obstacle to meet his target of collecting fine from traffic rule violators in the State Capital. The cop along with three other policemen has been assigned the job to maintain traffic at a particular cross roads in Gandhinagar. And according to him,all four of them have been given target of collecting Rs 1,000 as fine from traffic violators each per day by their superior officer. Explaining his plight in collecting the fine the cop said,”Most of the time when we stop some traffic violator,we get a call from some politician or some influential person in the city to let the violator go without fine. And to keep our political bosses happy we have to let the violator go.” “In such a situation,it is very hard to collect Rs 1,000 per day as fine,” he added.

Fishing in troubled waters!

Ameet Desai,director of a private power generation company thought his passing remarks about displacement of villagers in Mundra for industrialisation would go unnoticed. While speaking to the reporters at the power plant site in Mundra last Friday,Desai proudly claimed,”What you see here is being created in the last three years. In 2006,when we came here for the first time,there were only villages all around. Even to reach this project site,we had to cross several villages. There was absolutely no infrastructure here”. But he was caught offguard by a savvy reporter who interrupted him to tell him that the displacement was due to the power plant and that it destroyed livelihood of nearly 10,000 families solely dependent on fishing,Desai retracted. But then he claimed: “Those villages and villagers are all there. If you want I can show you around.” He even ignored several protests by the affected local community “All these are frivolous allegations with no substantive basis,” he added. Such are the pronouncements of the ‘power’ful.

‘Meat’ing points

Gujaratis are claiming to be all vegetarians,so much to the extent that a Pizza Hut in Ahemedabad serves only Veg Pizzas. Strange as that is,the Bhatiar Gali in the walled city everyday witnesses more than 70 per cent of Amdavadis binging madly on non-veg stuff. During one of my visit to the place,one strange man stood out from the rest. He preferred having a chicken to mutton kebabs. When a curious bystander asked him why,he replied,”I prefer chicken (in fact most of Gujaratis when out for non-veg food) as it doesn’t have meat like mutton.” Astonished by the knowledge of non-vegetarian food in the locals,the curious neighbour considered keeping quiet than explain what ‘meat’ really means.

‘Gunning’ for treasure

Recently a range forest officer (RFO) became the target of a bag-lifter in Junagadh bus stand. The RFO’s suitcase that contained his official revolver and papers was stolen from the bus he was traveling by. However,few days after the RFO lodged complaint with Junagadh police,an aged woman working in drinking water hut in Vanthali bus stand noticed a suitcase abandoned at the window of the hut. Despite waiting for entire day,no one came up to claim the suitcase,so the old woman took the suitcase and went home in the evening. After reaching the home,she opened the suitcase and was stunned. Instead of any valuables she found a revolver and bullets from it. Frustrated old woman called her son and showed the firearms. However,her son along with woman immediately contacted nearby police station and handed over the suitcase along with revolver. Later,police revealed that it was the same suitcase and revolver the RFO had lost in the bus. The old woma learnt that keeping safe distance from abandoned or unknown articles is better thing.

(Contributions from Gaurav Sharma,Parimal Dabi,Sibte Husain Bukhari,Tanvir Siddiqui,Ujjwala Nayudu)