Cop stops bureaucrat from meeting star

Road construction department secretary Pratyaya Amrit is a big fan of Abhishek Bachchan. But a policeman nearly stopped the IAS officer from meeting his favourite star when the latter was in the city recently. B>When Pratyaya, his wife and children reached the place where Abhishek had put up and headed to meet him, the town superintendent of police, Ramlakhan Prasad, pushed Pratyaya and his family aside. “You cannot go close to him. You do not have the permission,” Prasad said. The officer had failed to recognise the IAS officer. Embarrassed, Pratyaya called up a senior police officer, who in turn called up Ramlakhan, to allow him and his family meet Abhishek. “These policemen may be physically strong but they lack the brain,” Pratyaya said/B>

Bizarre request

Animal husbandry minister Giriraj Singh is known for his proximity to his party’s (BJP) grassroot-level cadres. But his accessibility to the small-time cadres created a piquant situation for him the other day. Giriraj said: “I was doing a file when a party worker from a remote area called me on my mobile phone. The moment I picked up the phone, he said his vehicle was seized by a traffic policeman and immediately passed on his phone to the cop. I got perplexed… What could I have told to the policeman from my end?” The minister said: “As a people’s representative one might confront such sort of bizarre troubles.”

CM’s jab at Paswan

Chief minister Nitish Kumar has his own inimitable style to counter his detractors. Recently, LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan alleged that Nitish had developed a penchant to invite top celebrities and dignitaries from across the globe to praise him. Reacting to it, Nitish said: “His (Paswan’s) office in Patna remains locked most of the time. Even if someone comes to praise him he would not find a place to sit.” In the same vein the chief minister added: “I never wished the LJP office to get closed in Bihar.” Apparently, Nitish wanted to convey that the LJP boss had become too unpopular to be mobbed by people. And he (Nitish) is not the reason behind Paswan’s unpopularity. The LJP office runs in a government bungalow on the Airport Road. It was allotted in the name of Paswan’s brother, Pashupati Nath Paras, when the latter was an MLA. But Nitish did not ask Paras to vacate the house after he lost the elections.

At a function, casually

Chief minister Nitish Kumar turned up in a chappal (slippers) at a function at Samvad Kaksh, adjacent to 1 Aney Marg, his official residence. People present were surprised to see the chief minister, who usually turns up well-dressed in white kurta-pyjama and formal leather sandals or shoes at public functions, in slippers. Even at home, he looks formal, usually in decent kurta-pyjama unlike his bade bhai and rival Lalu Prasad, who is infamous world over for his casuals. But nobody dared to ask Nitish about the reason for wearing chappal. They guessed that the chief minister could be in a light mood and might not have thought of changing the shoe for the function, which was taking place at a walking distance from his house.