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Journalism of Courage
Sukhbir Singh Badal is on a diet. He is a teetotaller and at the dinner hosted by him at the Taj for journalists last week,he refused to eat or even drink his favourite Diet Coke. CLaiming that as he finishes dinner by 7.30 pm,Sukhbir said he not eat anything. Badal Junior,now the power centre in Punjab,has enough weight to throw around now and seems to be trying to weigh less in terms of kilos. Moreover,at the dinner,Sukhbir did not fail to take a dig at journalists known to be close to Amarinder. Especially when any decision on election strategy of the Akalis vis-a-vis the Congress came up,he took potshots at Amarinders cronies,saying: You will know more about the Congress camp than me.
He said it all
There was no respite from Punjab Governor Shivraj Patils lengthy address on the opening day of the Vidhan Sabha. Usually,large parts of the Governors speech are not read out and are deemed to have been read. No such mercy with Patil,as he droned on and on. An MLA said later: I kept waiting for the magical words of deemed to have been read. They never came. The yawns of the MLAs also did not deter the Governor. Perhaps,he couldnt see them from his pedastal.
In their name
Even as the Punjab Vidhan Sabha was convened for its first session,the newly elected legislators were making a beeline to get their flats allotted from the Speaker. They also had to open new bank accounts,get stickers for their vehicles and identity cards for entry into the Assembly premises. While some legislators were in a quandary as the security car stickers could be given only for vehicles in their name,some others had no vehicle registered in their name.
Khude line posting
After putting in over three decades of service in the Haryana police department,a few senior officers are still waiting for their posting orders. Though these officers have been elevated to the next rank,they are yet to be handed over their portfolios,in writing. A top-ranked officers said,I had heard that in government functioning,mainly the police department,if any officer is required to be cut to size,he is given a khude line (insignificant)posting. But in our case,the government has left us with nothing neither the khud (ditch) nor any line (portfolio). All that we are required to do is go to office,sip endless cups of tea and return. The government has to pay us hefty salaries but do not have any work for us. It serves us as well we are not required to do anything but only enjoy the privileges,which come with the rank.
Guessing game for CS
Haryana bureaucracy is abuzz with the talk whether Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda will kill two birds with one stone. Since his respect for bureaucratic seniority is well known,babus expect that if he supersedes the hierarchy to appoint P K Chaudhary as the chief secretary,he may also simultaneously reward Raj Kumar with some lucrative assignment. But there is Krishna Mohan as well of the same 1977 batch. For him,the pretext of a CBI case against him will work to keep him as the chief secretary in waiting.
