Constables’ delight, senior cops’ plight

Constables are taking a sadistic pleasure over the recent plight of the station house officers (SHOs), someone they have to interact with on a day-to-day basis. The SHOs have been directed to ensure that encroachers do not resurface in their jurisdiction after the eviction drives were launched following a Patna High Court directive. “The SHO sahib gets calls from senior officers to regularly tour the sites where the anti-encroachment drives have been undertaken. He does not even have time to make money,” a constable said. senior police officer said: “The darogaji (the popular name of SHO) has to ensure law and order, forward the follow-up cases of complaints lodged in his police station and ensure that traffic jams do not occur. Now on top of all these, the SHOs will have to look after encroachment. It is a tall order and the poor fellow is flooded with phone calls from all corners. One should sympathise with him.”

Strict visit

Doctors of Patna Medical College and Hospital claim that they have to face an “unnecessary inspection” daily. The man inspecting the hospital premises is Amarjit Sinha, the principal secretary of the health department. “Sinha comes to the hospital to drop his wife, a doctor here. Everyday he makes a visit to some area of PMCH,” a doctor said, stressing that medics would have been happy if the wife of the senior IAS officer was posted in the other medical college in Patna — Nalanda Medical College and Hospital. The patients of PMCH have no complaints, though. “As long as Sinha is here, veryone will work. They tend to take it easy after he leaves,” a ward of a patient said.

Sorrow of PA

The post of ministers’ private assistants (PAs) is one of the most sought-after jobs in the state because they brings with them power without any responsibility. Those seeking to get some work done by the minister pamper them and there have been cases where the PA sahib runs the ministry in the name of his minister. But recently a minister asked his PA to get him to talk to some particular person over the phone. When the PA handed over the phone, the minister went head-on, blasting the person for not doing his job. To his horror, the minister soon found out that his PA had connected him to the wrong person. “Do I have to use my fists against you?” the angry minister told his PA in front of 30 others sitting in the chamber. “The PA’s job is not as glorified as people think it to be. The PA becomes the punching bag whenever anything goes wrong,” said a minister’s assistant.

Calls not enough

Animal husbandry department minister Giriraj Singh gets phone calls with all sorts of requests. “An acquaintance told me he has to dig a pond in his land and urged me to get the job done soon. I tell people like him that they have to come over to my office. There is an official process that has to be followed to get a work one. Everyone appears o be convinced that one hone call can get the job done for them,” the minister said.