Park bench proposal hits babudom hurdle

Officials of Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park recently got a taste of babugiri. When they sent a proposal to install steel benches at the park, the department officials sent them a note asking how many people were expected to sit on the steel benches. ursing the babus of the secretariat for stalling the plan with an useless query, a zoo official said: “How will we know how many visitors would prefer to roam around the park and how many of them would like to sit on the steel benches?” A bureaucrat posted at the state secretariat said: “This is exactly what babudom is all about - delaying things making meaningless queries in the file.” He recalled an incident wherein 18 months were wasted to get the name of a person expecting payment from the government right in the chequebook.

Phone fine on fence

The personnel posted at Sashastra Seema Bal outpost at Ganawli area in Valmikinagar Tiger Reserve have found a unique way out to overcome poor cellphone connectivity in the area. When they hang their handsets from the barbed fence of the eserve, the signal of obile service providers strengthen. Each time a obile handset rings, its owner rushes near the fence to receive the call. “At least the barbed fencing as come to some use. It an hardly prevent oachers and tree-fellers from entering the tiger eserve,” a forest department official said.

Ministers can’t dodge Nitish

Agriculture minister Narendra Singh was among the last few to rrive at the Kharna Prasad function at 1 Aney Marg, the fficial residence of hief minister Nitish Kumar. When he tried o sneak out after five minutes, Nitish spotted him and asked why e was leaving so early. The minister said e had just come to give his Salami. The chief minister asked him to stay on because he was among the last few o arrive. Singh, pparently having ther plans, had to spend quite some time at the chief minister's residence. “It is nearly impossible for ministers to sneak out in the presence of the chief minister. In most cases, he spots us,” said another minister, recalling how Nitish had admonished rural works minister Bhim Singh for trying to sneak out of the janata darbar before it was over.

Id politics

Muslim leaders of the JD(U) appear to have had anxious moments on Monday as the chief minister went from one politician's house to another on the occasion of Id-uz-Zoha. “Nitish visited the houses of RJD-turned-JD(U) leader Shakeel Ahmad Khan and MP Ali Anwar among others. But the leaders who were not on Nitish's visit list probably missed a heart beat,” said a JD(U) leader, pointing out that the Rajya Sabha and the State Legislative Council polls were due early next year and the fate of quite a few Muslim leaders in the party would be decided by the chief minister.