Chairman of Jharkhand Pollution Control Board Tileshwar Sahu (in dark glasses) addresses a meeting at the Circuit House. Picture by Bhola Prasad

Unsafe with cops

Faith on the city cops seems to be waning.

There was another instance given by chairman of the Jharkhand State Pollution Control Board, Tileshwar Sahu.

Sahu visited the steel city heavily guarded with a band of private bodyguards, apart from the ones given by the state government. The nosy media couldn?t refrain from asking Sahu about the presence of private bodyguards jostling with the government ones. ?How can you depend on police guards?? came the answer from the politician who had played a vital role in garnering support of some of Independent MLAs for the formation of the Arjun Munda government.

?Police guards are themselves vulnerable to Naxalite attacks, how can they protect others? I need private bodyguards as I live in the Naxalite-hit Gumla district,? he added. But Sahu?s reply deflated the morale of two police bodyguards, who immediately left the place probably bailing themselves out of the embarrassing situation.

Pride run

The Jharkhand Olympic Association (JOA) mandarins are trying their best not to let the ?Run for Jharkhand? run into rough weather and rubbish their claims of more than 25,000 people participating.

?We want to show the country how serious the people of Jharkhand are about National Games 2007,? JOA president R.K. Anand had said.

But they were worried when the deputy commissioner ordered schools to remain closed till June 25 because of the intense heat spell. And the run is scheduled for June 26.

The JOA requested the DC to order re-opening of schools before June 26. The DC obliged. On their part, the Ranchi University officials too advanced the re-opening of colleges to June 21 to enable principals to send enough students and teachers for the run.

?Run for Jharkhand?, also being advertised as ?run for the pride of the state?, will indeed lose its pride if a poor number turn up for the event. After the first showers in Jamshedpur, students have been trying to find whether ?DC uncle? has issued fresh orders for the schools to reopen. Unfortunately for the students, showers meant trooping back to school.

Car watch

Employees at the Secretariat at Project Bhavan have a new pastime every Tuesday.

They prefer to stay back at office till late. No, not to work but to gape at the swanky cars of ministers.

Every Tuesday, ministers in the Arjun Munda cabinet meet at 5 pm at Project Bhavan.

The attraction is the posh and expensive cars, costing between Rs 11 lakh and Rs 15 lakh, which adorn the campus. At least with this excuse, the Secretariat employees feel motivated to work overtime.

Sure-footed

The East Singhbhum deputy commissioner, Nitin Madan Kulkarni, has seen to it that his officials are not on a slippery ground, literally.

Kulkarni, after taking charge in April, had been observing how some officials were finding it difficult to walk in his chamber as the floor was tiled.

?We had to literally walk on our toes in the deputy commissioner?s chamber as there has been a couple of incidents when some of our colleagues had slipped and fell,? said an official of the collectorate.

Heeding to his colleagues request, Kulkarni had ordered the floor be carpeted immediately. The work, undertaken on a war-footing, was completed last week making the officials heave a sigh of relief.

Stumbling block?

The wobbly way of functioning of Ranchi Regional Development Authority (RRDA) has been under fire for quite some time.

An outsider jogged his head to get a clue to why the RRDA?s work ? increase in unplanned highrise buildings to basic urban facilities ? is so erratic in the capital. It didn?t take him long to stumble upon a reason.

Close to the main gate of Pragati Bhavan, which is the RRDA headquarters, a huge board invitingly announces ?Angrezi sharab ki dookan? (foreign liquor shop).

?That explains why the RRDA decisions and functioning have been so wobbly and is evident from the look of the state capital,? quipped one Banerjee from Jamshedpur, who was in the city to attend a social function.

Will shifting office be the cure?