Lucknownama

State Cooperative Minister Swami Prasad Maurya has been involved in a fight with a babu, who has this unusual habit of summoning district officials and ordering them all to buy something or the other from a particular firm.

Minister puts babu in place
State Cooperative Minister Swami Prasad Maurya has been involved in a fight with a babu, who has this unusual habit of summoning district officials and ordering them all to buy something or the other from a particular firm. Obviously, the babu has no respect for rules. As for his motives, well, you can make your own guess. Recently, the minister called a meeting of district assistant registrars, joint registrars and general managers of district cooperative banks to review their work. He also decided to use the opportunity to put the babu in his place. Maurya told district officers that they will be held accountable if they bought articles like crockery and computer hardware with funds given by the Centre for the revival of the primary agriculture cooperative societies and district cooperative banks. The minister also directed the officers to report to him if anyone in Lucknow asked them to make such purchases. The officers are happy: the babu8217;s orders for making arbitrary purchases have since stopped.

Fearing CBI, home secy disappears
Since the day CBI had filed a chargesheet against Home Secretary Mahesh Kumar Gupta and two others in a long-pending corruption case, Gupta has been missing from the daily media briefing of the Home department. Instead, Additional Director General Law and Order Brij Lal has been conducting the briefing. Gupta has also stopped picking up his cellphone. The state government did all it could to save Gupta 8212; it refused CBI the permission to prosecute him. But, to Gupta8217;s misfortune, the CBI still found a way to book him. The result is that the government is saddled with a home secretary who can8217;t be seen and can8217;t be heard even at his own department8217;s briefings.

Service lanes for locals? LMC disagrees
Don8217;t be surprised if you wake up one fine day and see the service lane in front of your house turned into a parking lot. This is exactly what the Lucknow Municipal Corporation LMC has been doing lately. Some time ago, it converted the service lane in front of ICICI Bank in Vivek Khand in Gomti Nagar, into a parking lot. Doesn8217;t matter if it inconveniences the residents. Nor does it matter if converting a lane into a parking lot is illegal. Asked about the arbitrary action, a senior LMC official said: 8220;There is a shortage of parking space in the area. So, we turned the service lane into a parking spot.8221;
Now, isn8217;t the LMC supposed to check encroachments and illegal use of roads and lanes? But then, the LMC has often shown little respect for the residents8217; rights and law. If it can dump garbage all over Lucknow despite orders from the High Court, conversion of a service lane into a parking lot is not a big issue.

No late nights, drunk cops told
Last week in a raid, officials found liquor being served in a discotheque beyond the permissible hours. Also, among those enjoying themselves were, reportedly, quite a few police officers. Several days have passed, but the names of the police officers remain secret. The matter seems to have been given a quiet burial, with a bit of informal advice to police officers 8212; no late nights at clubs and no alcohol consumption in public.

Red stone for Gomti Nagar pavement
Living amid the noise of stone cutters and the clouds of dust that keep emanating from the Ambedkar Memorial does anyone know when it will be completed?, about 25 residents of Sector B of Vipul Khand in Gomti Nagar have something good coming their way at last. The Uttar Pradesh Rajkiya Nirman Nigam and the Lucknow Development Authority have decided to replace unauthorised ramps and kitchen gardens outside the houses with red stone flooring. It is the same stone that is being used inside Ambedkar Memorial and for the beautification of the Gomti embankment. The houses will soon have a beautiful pathway in front. A contractor confirmed that they had received instructions for paving the area with the red stone, which has been specially brought from Rajasthan.
8220;It will give our houses a VIP look,8221; said Sudhanshu, a resident.

Trust us to protest professionally
Lucknow has its fair share of professional protestors who can be trusted to oppose anything and everything. The demonstrations against the proposed laying of an astroturf at the Chowk Stadium should remove whatever doubts anyone may have in this connection. The argument of the protesters is that the astroturf will make the stadium into a 8220;hockey stadium8221;. This will mean an end to training in other sports like cricket, football and athletics. To them, it does not matter that the city is getting a first-class facility that it badly needs. Regional Sports Officer R P Singh says the astroturf will not affect training in boxing. As for the other sports, the two stadiums, which will be coming up in Gomti Nagar, soon will have facilities for football, athletics, cricket and indoor sports.
Besides, once hockey is shifted to the Chowk Stadium, K D Singh 8216;Babu8217; Stadium will be available for cricket training 8220;to a greater extent8221;.
Another sports official said some people, who were running their businesses from the stadium, were organising protests. 8220;The main force behind the protests is a private academy which runs cricket coaching at the stadium,8221; he added.