Audio grapevine

The advent of information technology in government offices sometimes creates amusing situations, as the ways of officers used to across-the-table meetings are difficult to change. Recently, Labour Ministry officials, trying to get to the bottom of a Rs 2,400-odd crore accounting black hole in the Employees8217; Provident Fund Organisation reported in this newspaper, called for a videoconference with the regional PF commissioners concerned. Waiting for the meeting and video transmission to begin, the commissioners in their respective conference rooms began to chat on the audio link: the usual babudom cynicisms such as 8220;Kuchh nahin niklega is meeting se8230;Nothing will come out of this meeting8221;. Then it struck one of the commissioners8212;their conversation could be heard at Shram Shakti Bhavan. Too late, the additional labour secretary had already heard most of the banter.