Teachers take CM’s trip
Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit has a reputation of being suave and the ability to parry difficult questions both from the press as well as from the Opposition. However, she faced a much stiffer test at the Urdu-medium schools convention at Jamia Millia Islamia last week where questions flew thick and fast. When a school teacher asked her why the government hadn’t appointed a single Urdu teacher since 1995, cheers and claps resounded. From the stage, Jamia’s Vice-Chancellor Mushirul Hasan gestured for calm, while Dikshit tried to answer by saying she would consult the records. It didn’t stop there. Another teacher pointed out that the NCERT translations of Urdu textbooks were full of errors—what was she going to do about it? A normally unflappable Diskhit may well have been transported back to her school days.

VIP woes
Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s frequent flying visits to Gurgaon to participate in a flurry of programmes suddenly found the city police doing far more VIP duty than they are used to. After three rounds, the police were heard complaining like their Delhi counterparts, who are on VIP duty more often than not. “As per the requirement of the city, we are almost 6,000 personnel short and now we have constant over-time duties without any remuneration,” complained a sub-inspector in the Gurgaon Police. A head constable added: “Senior officers don’t have to be present at their desks to ensure smooth functioning, but we have to be present at the police station as well as at the roadside when there is any VIP movement. Maybe it’s time to take some tips from the Capital’s cops.

‘Cell’ phones
Gurgaon may be more known as an IT hub but a raid in the Gurgaon Jail revealed how progressive the city had become in the telecom sector as well. The police recovered around 35 mobile phones from the prisoners’ cells. As the Gurgaon Police Commissioner made jubilant announcements that the jail would be fitted with jamming devices, five more brand new mobile phones were again recovered from the jail.

Transfer traffic
Delhi Police Commissioner Y S Dadwal’s passion for traffic management is taking a toll on the department. Every time Dadwal sees someone breaking a traffic law or detects laxity on the part of traffic officers, the concerned DCP himself gets a personal discourse from the commissioner. So much so, that most of the personnel working with the traffic police have been trying hard to be transferred out. More than 50 percent of the staff has already been shunted out, say sources. The only person who seems to be ably clutching to his job is Joint Commissioner Qamar Ahmad.

All attitude, no logic
Delhites are well known for flexing muscles and reply back with verbal abuses when asked to follow rules. This attitude was on display during the mock trial at the toll plaza on the Delhi-Gurgaon expressway. The motorists were not aware that it was a trial and they wouldn’t be charged a penny. A couple of car owners stopped at the counter and started arguing with the cashier about their being exempt from paying toll as they were MCD employees or working in the Prime Minister’s Office. Amused by all this, the COO of DS Constructions, Allan Le Roux, a South African remarked, “It is a one big family out here. Everyone is a close relative of the PM or President.”