CN Heard; Anxious

Loud cheer

The Vice-President Hamid Ansari’s directions to PU for withholding the selection process for new Vice-Chancellor (V-C),last week,seemed to have brought cheer to the present V-C R C Sobti. But putting this information on Ansari’s directions in public domain landed the office of Director Public Relations (DPR) Mohanmeet Khosla in trouble. Within minutes of sending across the information to media houses,last week,from PU DPR’s email ID,Khosla shot another communication,from her personal email ID,clarifying that the information was made public without the permission of the Vice-President. Sources say that Khosla was pulled up by the higher authorities for not “advising” the V-C on such decisions.

More than training

Amid preparations for inauguration of city’s first government smart school scheduled for next week,the officials in the Education Department have been too busy in ensuring that the ceremony remains foolproof. In doing so,they have been found to be spending maximum time in training the teachers on “how to respond to the queries of media.” These teachers- who are being otherwise imparted technical training for running the smart school-have also been provided with written scripts carrying answers for questions which may be raised by the reporters during the inauguration ceremony.

Clean sweep!

VIP visits often bring discomfort for the residents of the area. But certainly these visits are not the ones without any advantages. Recent visit of the prime minister Manmohan Singh and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi triggered a cleanliness drive in the satellite township of Panchkula. Hours before the guests arrived,sweepers were seen cleaning the roads with brooms. Suddenly,all the cattle even,which otherwise cause inconvenience to the commuters on the road were taken to a no man’s land as none of them were to be seen on the roads. Maybe such high profile VIPs should visit more often.

Get hi-tech cameras

Recently,at PGIMER,37 CCTV cameras were installed for round the clock surveillance of the institute. The facility was inaugurated by IG UT Police,P K Srivastava. At the event,he suggested PGI officials to go in for more sophisticated cameras with blinking and beeping facility on the monitors to show if there is anything suspicious in a certain area. Nothing wrong with the suggestion except that the cameras installed by the UT Police on the traffic crossings are so poor that they are good to only catch those who park their vehicles beyond the zebra crossing while waiting for the signal to turn green. Incidentally,if someone jumps the red light,the cameras cannot record that. Any suggestions,Mr IGP?

VVIP trouble

A major harassment for Panchkula residents was that during the Prime Minister’s visit to Panchkula on Friday evening,the cops did not leave open any entry point on the Zirakpur-Pinjore highway for people to cross over from Sectors 1-18 to Sectors 20-21 etc,on the other side of the highway. Cops kept guiding commuters to one point or the other to cross over to the other side of the highway but all were closed. The result was that residents kept driving around in circles trying to find even one entry point to cross over on the other side. Finally,scores of harassed residents who had driven up to Baltana found an entry point there and and drove over to the other side after almost two hours of driving around. Panchkula can instruct its cops in better traffic planning the next time a VIP comes visiting.

Over enthusiastic

The rulebook says that for a VIP visit,cops should be stationed four hours in advance. Haryana was over-enthusiastic by a furlong. For the Prime Minister’s visit to Panchkula on Friday evening,policemen were stationed along all major routes since morning. Passers-by observed that one could well imagine the condition of these cops standing in the heat all day,and their ability to react if anything untoward happened in the evening. Meanwhile,while the whole city seemed to be complaining about traffic chaos which was caused due to the PM’s visit to Panchkula,some saw the lighter side of the situation. They were of the view that at least they got to see their police which they believe probably had gone for some shopping,referring to the brand new barricades which were used during the visit.

Horsing around

As 13-year-old rider Gursobha Singh interacted with the local media at a city hotel this week,all the attention was on his horse. The guests at the hotel posed with Gursobha’s horse and some even requested the rider to let them ride the horse. Singh politely refused the guests and most of them had to return to the hotel lobby. Later,some of Singh’s friends got themselves photographed with the horse.

Femme fatale

During the opening home match of the IPL at the PCA Stadium in Mohali,female bouncers were seen manning the VVIP areas for the first time. For the cricket fans who walked into their seating areas,seeing female bouncers at the stadium was a rare sight. Few women fans even posed for photographs with them.

Hooda on court

That Bhupinder Singh Hooda is a tennis fanatic is well known. However,due to his hectic schedule,the 64-year-old hardly finds time to step on the nearest court,let alone play matches. On April 10,when he got the chance to partner Leander Paes,the Haryana CM seemed to make the most of it. After the match,Hooda,instead of leaving off for official work,decided to spend more time playing. He also invited some incumbents from his office to play a doubles match with it while Leander sat on the chair and looked on. Hooda surely knows how to give workers in his office some work out.