Ringside view

On a truck-ride!

TALKING of a BRTS bus,its driver cabin has already been described as one comparable to that of a truck. S K Lohia,officer on special duty from the Ministry of Urban Development,while taking a ride noticed a little area the bus driver was made to manoeuvre in. He made a very startling comment about the present city transport buses — that whatever is offered to the people in the name of city buses,are bodies of buses fitted on the chassis of a truck! “What you ride in cities are not fit to be called buses,but trucks in which people are loaded like animals,” believes the official. Anybody listening,AMTS or bus body builders?

On ‘monsoon vacation’

THESE days,the idlest of the departments in the civic body is the monsoon control room at Sanskar Kendra. The staff stationed here has got everything at hand but precious little to do,thanks to the elusive monsoon. There are no calls to attend to,no information to provide to any quarter and no flurry of activity,which otherwise,are the very nature of a control room. They have to just come,sign their presence and then get busy with whatever they like,either play games on their computers or while away the time gossiping. But as every good thing comes to an end,their “duty” will also come to an end with the end of “monsoon”. Now,that’s what called — all pay and no work!

Look before you rush

A CURSORY visit to any and every mall in the city gives an impression that they are left with no other trick up their marketing sleeve but to offer ‘deceptively’ hefty discounts. From a distance,much before you enter the glass façade of the mall,you will see the big banners announcing 50 per cent discount on almost all items. You rush in with excitement,but as you inch closer,you find that fine print at the left hand top corner of the 50 per cent figure — UP TO! That obviously means not every thing is available at half the price. There are many things that are sold only at 10 or 15 per cent discounts. So,you see,even if you don’t spend money,a good lot of your time is bound to be spent!

Highly immobile?

THE recent group clashes between the Patels and the Rabaris in the city left many police officers stay up all night discharging their duties. The three-day menace left many of them complaining of sleepless nights and bodyache. But for one officer,who apparently shrugged off his responsibilities as he reportedly lost his mobile phone while on duty. His apparent loss of the phone left the higher officials of the department fuming and snapping at the Ghatlodia police station. The officer was reported to be defending himself claiming that people from one of the two communities snatched away his phone when he was trying to control the violence at Prabhat Chowk. One of the higher officers,coming out after a high-level meet,commented sarcastically that the particular police officer has been deported and packed off to a place where he can do without mobile phones!

‘No-works committee’

CREATING decision-making committees for every other issue has become much a vogue. Interestingly,even the committee members become quite ‘optimistic’ that they are not going to bring in any earth-shattering decision. This became much evident when one of the reporters,while talking to an official in the education department — was inquiring about the progress made on various age-old committees set up in the department. While most of the committees had still not submitted any report,the official finally blurted out,“Madam,committees banti hi hai kaam na karne ke liye. Bas bade bade naam de diye jate hain in committees ko taki logo ko lage ki kuch to chal raha hai. Baaki agar insaan ko sach me kaam karna ho,to tabhi ke tabhi ho jata hai,committee bithani nahi padti. Aap chinta na kare,in muddo ka koi hal nahi nikalne wala,” (Committees are set up so that no work is done. Only big name are attached to these committees so that it seems like some serious work is going on. If one seriously wants to work,there would be no need for setting up committees. Don’t worry,there wouldn’t be any solution to these issues).

Research gets a miss

VADODARA: STRANGE are the ways how some seniors and outgoers,who have already attained a name in their fields,decide the fate of a few projects at the M S University. That too,in a department of the Science faculty,which used to be very well known in the field of research and development. The Special Assistance Programme (SAP),supported by the University Grants Commission (UGC),was scrapped from this department. The reason — funds for the projects were not used and not many proposals were made either. An official from the university administration highlighted that when the UGC asked about the research and development carried out at the department in the past few years,a now retired professor wrote that “it is not mentionable”! Many find this to be a very quirky statement made by a senior about a department,which has a good history in research and development.

— Contributed by Debarati Basu,Shubhlakshmi Shukla,Tanvir A Siddiqui and Ujjwala Nayudu.