CN and Heard

Not the end yet

Those influentials who construe the clean chit given by the Judicial Tribunal,probing illegal properties in city’s periphery,as the final verdict,are mistaken. For,it is land records of only eight of the total 336 villages in Chandigarh’s periphery which have been examined till now. The land records of the remaining 328 villages are yet to be perused by the Tribunal,headed by Justice (retd) Kuldip Singh to find out alleged irregularities,encroachments and cases of land grab. Sources say during the inspection of records,the members of the Judicial Tribunal stumbled upon pieces of information which have revealed that certain high ups have “grabbed” land in the periphery.

A Speaker who cannot speak

When Kuldeep Sharma,Speaker Haryana Vidhan Sabha,present in an inauguration function held at Panchkula was asked to address the gathering,he smilingly said,“Though I am the Speaker,nobody allows me to speak in the assembly. If I try to speak no one listens to me.” No wonder he wants to get into the cabinet to be “more effective’’.

Off to ‘study’

BJP councillors are a divided lot over the study tour proposed by the Municipal Corporation. While the majority of the councillors want to be a part of the tour,a few are vocal opponents of the same. Last year the idea of the tour was dropped after objections from some councillors of the BJP. The remaining were seen supporting their counterparts in the MC House,but outside the criticism was evident. The situation is the same this year. Even though there are a few murmurs of discontent,most are ready to pack their bags. What they intend to study is yet to be decided.

Top cops get foxed

Held for the first time,the LGBT (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender) parade in Chandigarh was an eye opener not only for the city residents but also for the Chandigarh Police. A day before the parade,many officers were contacted,by the media persons,to enquire about the security arrangements for the parade. Surprisingly,the officers who were contacted were unaware about what ‘LGBT’ stood for. One of the officers even confused it with ABVP (Akhil Bhartiya Vidya Parishad). Having learnt what LGBT,when expanded,stands for,the Police officers were found less cheerful. Some of them even refused to believe it at first until they cross-checked with their seniors.

A promise not kept

The Panchkula Municipal Corporation (PMC) had earlier promised that it will introduce a switching system that will ensure that the street lights are automatically turned off during daytime. The system was to be taken up on priority. However,it is for everyone to see street lights on during day time resulting into wastage of money. Many of the street lights have also conked. The Administration needs to honour its promise and ensure that public money is put to the best possible use.

Cut the dignitaries!

The recent visit by the President to the city had sent the UT Administration officials in a tizzy over the list of dignitaries who were to receive the President at the airport. Since he was to attend two different events in the city,the list,other than that of the UT Administration officials also included other names.

However,seeing the list of a dozen and a half names in the list,the UT Administration officials who were coordinating the most important visit were shocked. To top it all,while the list missed out on certain important names,it also contained names which did not hold so much importance. Needless to say that the final list was cut short only to save the President from shaking hands with so many persons.

What a coincidence!

That the UT Administrator Shivraj V Patil and the lone Member of Parliament and now a Union Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal are not best of friends is well known. But it is little known that they always try to avoid each other,successfully though,at public functions and even go to the extent of missing events in order to escape from any stage sharing opportunity. This time however during the president’s visit to PGIMER for the 33 rd convocation both of them got lucky. While Shivraj Patil could attend the function,the Union Minister for Railways could not make it owing to ongoing discussion on the Rail Budget in Parliament. That was a close miss.