Ruffled feathers? Now pay the price
It came as a surprise for many that Principal Secretary (Home) Tarlochan Singh and his counterpart at state labour department, Nurul Haque, swapped positions. The latest from the Writers’ grapevine is that Singh had ruffled the feathers of the establishment by transferring an SDO, who was close to the ruling party. So it was quite inevitable that Singh had to pay the price.
After all, it is always best not to antagonise the bosses.

Webel wars spill over in Cabinet
State IT minister Debes Das and his colleague in tourism and small-scale industries ministry, Manab Mukherjee, are at loggerheads nowadays. The bone of contention is the state government’s PSU, Webel.
Dissatisfied with Webel’s service to the state Election Commission, Das was keen to see the PSU offloaded, but Mukherjee — who in his earlier stint had headed the IT department —stood in the way. Das has not been able to overcome his resistance, since the latter also holds more sway in the party. Das, on the other hand, is more of an academician and less of a partyman.

Knee-deep in seminar table
Public programmes in Kolkata sometimes leave guests more embarrassed than the organisers.
Often, it could even pose a health risk. If you are still clueless, read on.
During a recent visit to the city, Nobel Laureate and economist Amartya Sen attended a seminar at the University Institute Hall where he chose to address the audience while being seated. “Recently, I have undergone a knee surgery and doctors have asked me to avoid standing,” Sen told the gathering of primary teachers. But no sooner he had said this, the table in front of him collapsed on his feet. The shocked 74-year-old could only grimace. He, however, regained his poise and resumed the speech after the table was replaced.

Teachers caught recycling art?
At a recent exhibition of paintings by government schoolteachers from across the state, the Information & Culture Department officials had only for the recent works of the participants. The last time such an exhibition was arranged, an official of the department — who also happened to be well informed about the art circuit — found that teachers had submitted their old creations instead of their latest works. Caught red-handed, the teachers were obliged to pick up their brushes again.

Noble mission gone awry
Railway officials at Sealdah station were almost on the verge of losing their sanity. In a bid to clear the station premises of vagrants, most of them of mentally-unsound people, railway officials decided to get them examined by psychiatrists. The reports were to be submitted to the ACJM court of Sealdah. The clearance by the magistrate was essential for the vagrants to get admitted in the state-run mental hospitals.
As per the ACJM’s directive, a medical board comprising doctors from the Pavlov mental hospital was constituted.
But to the chagrin of the Railways, the board, in its report, refused to acknowledge the patients as “mentally unfit”.
For the Railway authorities, it was a galling moment. Neither could they drive the vagrants away, nor make any alternate arrangement for their rehabilitation. Some officials spent sleepless nights to ensure that these vagrants, lodged in a room at Sealdah station, were in their best of health and spirits.