Those who ventured out during the day saw groups of policemen all along the route of the PM's drive. That's to be expected. But to see those same policemen shooing away cattle was absurd, to put it mildly.

The VMC, which is roundly criticised by every section of society for its inefficiency, displayed a refreshing alacrity deploying nearly 1,000 safai workers -- not including officials to supervise them -- to clean the entire stretch the motorcade was to take (Airport, past Fatehgunj, the Polytechnic, the Circuit House, Sayajigunj and Raj Mahal Road).

Their work was effective. The main roads were clean; the dust had been swept to one side. But those who ventured into the bylanes would have been reassured on seeing that nothing had changed.

And then the cow problem. Two teams of VMC officials were deployed to catch the errant bovines. An officer from the VMC's security department said the squads had not returned till evening.

Well, if they were hunting in the dark they would have been aided by the streetlights that had been doublechecked and repaired where necessary. A VMC official said 25 streetlights were repaired during the day.