Split wide open

‘Theft’ at police post

In a surprise check across police stations and posts in Panchkula city on the night of May 24,SP Maneesh Chaudhry did not find anyone at the Sector 15 police post. The whole staff was sitting behind the post. Chaudhry walkd in,took six registers and left. In the morning,he called up the in-charge of the police post,Assistant Sub-Inspector Ishwar Singh,who had to wait for about two hours to meet the SP. When they met,Chaudhry asked him if something had gone missing from the police post. Singh declined. The SP then showed him the registers he had taken from the post. This left Singh speechless. Advising that at at least someone should be present to attend to the general public in the night,Chaudhry warned Singh that had there been a real theft,the in-charge would have been suspended.

Cleanliness ‘overdrive’

For the 14 days that Punjab Chief Minister’s wife Surinder Kaur was admitted to the PGI,the sanitation staff was told to keep the intensive care unit (ICU),where she was admitted,spik and span. Not that it is otherwise unclean,but to ensure that there was no dirt at all,the staff could be seen mopping and wiping the floor more than usual. If only such high standards of cleanliness and hygiene could be maintained across all wards at PGI and also at other hospitals even for commoners. After all,the lobby area outside the ICU was literally being used as a VIP waiting hall. Since not everyone was allowed to meet the patient,both CM and deputy CM were personally coming to the lobby to meet well wishers — mostly comprising leaders as well as bureaucrats. Only selected few known to be really close to the Badal family were escorted inside the ward,and that too for a few minutes.

Is anyone there?

With the Mayor and a group of councillors off on a study tour and there being no regular municipal commissioner,the residents who visited the Municipal Corporation throughout the week did not know who to turn to. Moving from one office to the other,the residents found no one to address their grievances. Ruing the situation,they had an added grudge to their tale of woes.

Gone with the wind

What appears to be a case of hypnotism has finally left a 70-year-old man poorer by Rs 40,000 and a diamond ring. Nishi Chaudhary — a resident of Sector 36 — was allegedly robbed on Thursday evening when he was on his way home after playing golf at the Golf Club. Two youths followed him and one managed to enter Nishi’s car when he was waiting at Hotel Sunbeam roundabout light point. “I don’t know what happened. The youngster,all of a sudden,started posing as if he knew me for long. He started showing me some pictures on a laptop,which he was carrying. He sought my blessings,clicked my picture on his cellphone and asked me to give him a coin. Then he left. When I reached home,I realised that I was left with an empty cellphone and an empty laptop pouches. My diamond ring and Rs 40,000 were also gone.”