Friday, 01 October 2021 | Gajendra Singh Negi | Dehradun
Maharaj’s motive
With the crucial elections for the state assembly drawing close the desperation of the ruling party leaders especially that of the ministers is increasingly coming to the fore in the Himalayan state. In one such incident that happened recently the heavyweight minister Satpal Maharaj got furious when during an inspection of a government hospital located in his assembly constituency he found that some doctors were abstaining from their duty. His anger flared up further when he was informed by locals that the doctors enjoy the benefit of unregistered leave on a mutually accepted rotational basis. Maharaj then gave a severe dressing down to the officials of the hospital and gave an impromptu sermon on public service. Now his detractors are cornering Maharaj by pointing out that the whole affair was stage managed with the minister even tucking a lapel microphone on his kurta so that maximum advantage of his booming voice is achieved in the video which was professionally recorded from a vantage position and made viral.
Punjab Trap!
The indomitable Harish Rawat is known for his astuteness, management skills and political acumen but all these skills seem to have failed him in handling the acid test of Punjab. His adversaries are now blaming him for the Punjab fiasco where cricketer turned politician Navjot Singh Sidhu has put the grand old party in doldrums by resigning from the coveted post of PCC president. When Rawat was made in-charge of Punjab political tranquillity prevailed in the Congress party with CM Captain Amarinder Singh in complete control of the party and the state. The Congress appeared invincible with AAP in disarray and Akalis being subdued but when Siddhu started becoming assertive against Captain the situation cascaded to present status where the Captain is ready to jump the ship and with Sidhu running himself out. It appears that the Punjab assignment has become a millstone around the neck of Rawat who wants to leave everything and take a direct plunge in the battlefield of Uttarakhand where stakes are high for him and the Congress party. It would be interesting to witness how Rawat wriggles out of the Punjab mess where he is caught between the Captain and the cricketer.
Traffic chaos
For denizens of Dehradun city where town planning seems to be pariah for the authorities, commuting on the roads of the city had always been a tough task but the ongoing works of Smart City project and new traffic lights placed in scores of junctions recently have made it even more arduous. In an attempt to make the city smart and modern, Dehradun police with generous budgetary support from the government have purchased hundreds of traffic lights. These lights have now been placed in different road junctions across the city. However many of them have been placed at the points where they are actually not required. The timer of these new lights too has not been set as per the traffic requirement as a consequence of which traffic is moving at a snail’s pace in the areas where it used to flow smoothly prior to placement of the lights.
