Delhi Underground: Dying for a telegram

Even as the BSNL corporate office justified shutting down the 160-year-old telegraph service claiming manpower needs to be utilised efficiently and their salaries justified,its staff were quite saddened by the decision.

Even as the BSNL corporate office justified shutting down the 160-year-old telegraph service claiming manpower needs to be utilised efficiently and their salaries justified,its staff were quite saddened by the decision. But,their sentiments were no match for those of a man who has threatened suicide unless the decision to shut the services from July 15 is recalled. In a telegram from Lucknow,addressing the President,Prime Minister,the Minister for Communications,among others,the man said he would go on a fast unto death if services were shut down. He said if he died,the officials to whom the telegram was addressed to would be responsible. However,the telegraph office in Delhi has not sent it yet,marking it as objectionable.

Rescue and relief

The Revenue department of Delhi came to a standstill on the three days the water level in the Yamuna rose and flooded several areas of the national capital. The reason: officials at all levels,including District Commissioners and Sub Divisional Magistrates from all districts,were engaged in relief and rescue work. And of course,the Revenue department was not the only one. Officials from the Irrigation and Flood Control department,Public Works Department,the three municipalities as well as civil defence volunteers also stopped all work to rescue flood victims.

Alls not well

After leader of Opposition V K Malhotra walked out of the state executive meet,people were left wondering about the degree of truth in Delhi BJP chief Vijay Goels statement that all was well in the party. When leaders,who have been long neglected by Goel,came to attend the meet,the Delhi unit chief claimed there was no difference amongst the party leaders. There were rumours about how national BJP chief Rajnath Singhs advise to be together was the reason the leaders were at the meet.

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But when Both Malhotra and Arati Mehra walked out of the meet,it was apparent that all was not well in the party yet.

Double standards?

After feelers from the Delhi government of their willingness to raise the retirement age of government schoolteachers from 62 years to 65 years,sources said several MLAs had written to Chief Minister Sheila

Dikshit seeking permission to hold a maha sammelan of teachers at the Talkatora Stadium on Sunday.

Dikshit,however,politely declined the invitation and asked the legislators to wait for the government to clear the proposal before celebrating it. Incidentally,after announcing relief to Lal Dora colonies last week,Dikshit and members of her Cabinet had attended a similar sammelan minutes after completing a Cabinet meeting which cleared the Lal Dora extension proposal.

Wrong number

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Making his mobile phone number and email ID public proved to be an unwise decision for a senior police officer. The officer has been at the receiving end of a deluge of phone calls that are not even related to his day

to day work. While speaking to a junior,the officer was overheard saying that he even got a call with someone

asking for help to resolve her marriage dispute.

No water works

Headquarters of the Delhi Police and the Public Works Department,both located at ITO,are reportedly facing a major water scarcity. Officials said water was supplied to both headquarters only once every two days,and that too for about 15 minutes. Due to the crisis,staff of senior officers have started getting their drinking water from home. Personal assistants of many senior officials are complaining about having to buy mineral water for the guests. A joke doing the rounds in the police headquarters is that senior officials who live in the nearby New Delhi district area prefer to use the bathroom at home rather than the ones in their office,which do not have any water.

Platform chaos

Hundreds of passengers waiting to board the Shatabdi Express to Amritsar were already harrowed as their train arrived 40 minutes late. But,their ordeal did not end there. By the time the Amritsar Shatabdi glided into the platform,it was already teaming with passengers of the Kalka Shatabdi to Jammu (the train scheduled to arrive a the platform after Amritsar Shatabdi). As it happened,many Kalka Shatabdi passengers boarded the wrong train. Finally,an announcement was made before the Amritsar Shatabdis departure. It said,Good afternoon. This is the Amritsar Shatabdi. Passengers of Kalka Shatabdi,who have boarded this train by mistake,please get down. The departure of the Amritsar Shatabdi was delayed for another 20 minutes due to this confusion.

Independence

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The announcement that several private colleges in Gurgaon would be turned into independent universities was not welcomed by several student,who said they would prefer studying in a college which was affiliated with a known university. The students felt that once the college became independent,it would have to build its reputation from scratch. This,the students felt,could also lead to a fall in the number of applications the Gurgaon colleges received from Delhi.

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Delhi Underground: Dying for a telegram

Even as the BSNL corporate office justified shutting down the 160-year-old telegraph service claiming manpower needs to be utilised efficiently and their salaries justified,its staff were quite saddened by the decision.

Even as the BSNL corporate office justified shutting down the 160-year-old telegraph service claiming manpower needs to be utilised efficiently and their salaries justified,its staff were quite saddened by the decision.