Indian Express 26.07.2010
Cn Heard
Express News Service Tags : corporation Posted: Mon Jul 26 2010, 04:17 hrs
Chandigarh: Now controversy on sapling-plantationControversies in the Municipal Corporation are raked up at the slightest provocation. This time, all it took was a sapling. UT Home Secretary Ram Niwas planted a sapling in a theme park to be developed by the Municipal Corporation, in collaboration with the Tourism Department, recently. This led to a ruckus with the councillors, who alleged they were not invited and even the Mayor was not informed about the event. Controversies over inaugurations are common in the civic body, with issues like non-inclusion of Mayor’s name on invitation card or the name on the plaque can evoke strong emotions.
Haryana — a vibrant acquisitor
The alleged illegal release of acquired land by the Haryana government has become a source of perpetual criticism and left-handed compliments. In a case involving construction of under passes on National Highways, Chief Justice Mukul Mudgal, taking a dig at Haryana’s ignorance over total number of underpasses to be built on the stretch, said, “Find out. After all, Haryana is a vibrant acquisitor.”
Singh is King
Bhupinder Singh Hooda is in habit of answering the call on his cell phone himself. This means a lot of people, who know his number (which is closely guarded), don’t hesitate to call him even at odd hours. To his credit, the CM is not known to lose temper with them. However, one “fan” is in the habit of calling him way past midnight. Finally, one day the CM asked him about his late night dialling, to which the caller, sounding tipsy, replied, “One needs a lot of courage to talk to the King and this courage comes only after gulping down a couple of pegs.”
The in-security
Reprimanding the states of Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh for giving unnecessary security guards and vehicles to netas and babus, Justice Surya Kant gave his own example. “I never take my security guard for evening walk, which I never miss. The day something is going to happen, neither the security guard nor anyone else will be able to save me,” he said.
Self-obsessed worker
A city-based “self-obsessed” homeopath Dr Jagidsh Jaggi claims to have got another “honour” this time. He is now the Traffic Marshal with Chandigarh Traffic Police.
While Dr Jaggi, who has hired a public-relations company to pass this information to the media, claims he is the first one to be given the title, his claims need correction. In fact,
there are around 50 traffic marshals in the city, including businessmen, advocates, retired government officials and defence personnel. There is a chief traffic marshal as well.
