Drivers’ delight till victory

Every day India played in the knock out stage of the World Cup proved to be a delight for drivers in the daytime and a nightmare in the night. During the afternoon and early evening, roads remained deserted as the cricket fans watched matches ball-by-ball. Game over, they used to take control of streets late night, leaving motorists stranded.The World Cup matches involving India proved to be both drivers’ delight and nightmare. During the daytime the roads used to be empty and I could drive from Patna City to my office flat in 15 minutes. Normally, that is more than an hour’s drive, depending on the number of traffic jams you come across,” said a businessman residing in Patna City. He had a nightmare while driving back after India emerged victorious in one of the matches. “It took me two hours to reach home that night as everyone was on the streets,” he said, stressing that World Cup had a mixed impact on drivers.

Mangani miss hits

JD (U) circles are a bit surprised that the axe fell on Lok Sabha MP Mangani Lal Mandal. Everybody thought he would be let off with a warning like others. Instead, he was bracketed with Lallan Singh, Upendra Kushwaha and Sushil Singh and was suspended from the party. The charge against Mandal was that he had asked his supporters to ensure the defeat of minister Nitish Mishra in the Assembly polls. “But the actual anger against Mangani was that he had issued a whip in favour of Lallan when the election for a Parliament panel was on. The whip was later withdrawn but the move frustrated the party’s move to seek for the disqualification of Lallan as the rebel MP would have an alibi that even the party had issued a whip in his favour,” pointed out a enior leader of the party.

Positive response

Rural works minister Bhim Singh was the most sought after minister during the budget session because MLAs had several complains regarding damaged, incomplete or even non-existent rural roads. Towards the fag end of the session, the minister had only one reply to all the questions: “The work will be taken up on priority (prathmikta) basis in the next financial year”. After listening to the same answer over and over again, RJD MLA Raghvendra Pratap Singh remarked that Singh should be called Prathmikta Mantri (primary minister) because he had no other word to utter. Singh gave a befitting reply on the final day of the Assembly session. “The standard answer to these questions is the assurance that work will be done in accordance to the availability of nidhi (funds). My answer to the questions today sounds more positive,” he said.

All game for match

On March 30, the ruling and the Opposition MLAs had only one thing in common. They wanted the House session to be over fast. The Speaker cut short the argument of the MLAs, the Leader of the Opposition Abdul Bari Siddiqui proposed handing over of a set of call attentions to a House panel instead of being debated in the House. The chief minister did his bit by making his winding up speech in short. “Both the chief minister and the Leader of the Opposition were sporting blue kurtas. It is no coincidence. Both Nitish and Siddiqui have the same thing on their mind,” said RJD MLA Bhai Birendar, hinting that both wanted to wind up before the India-Pakistan cricket match started.