Recently, the Chief Minister’s Office gave a call to a Deputy Commissioner around midnight saying that the CM Bhagwant Mann wanted to interact with morning walkers thus he was considering an early-morning walk in the city. The officer reportedly began making preparations before dawn as immediately the district administration sprang into action and went into an over drive mode. The security arrangements, route planning and logistics were quickly set in motion. Just then as suddenly as this proposed interaction with morning walkers had appeared, the plan was shelved and the much-anticipated walk never took place.
Girls’ question prompts convention change
A 17-year-old Gagandeep Kaur of Tahirpura village questioned Punjab CM Bhagwant Singh Mann, which made him change a convention. She got the CM to announce that the Punjab School Education Board would stop using age as a tiebreaker to rank students with identical scores. Her poser exposed a convention that, hitherto, many accepted without examining it closely. She had scored 98% in the Class 10 PSEB exam, equal to two other students of her school. Her question stemmed from her sense of being treated unfairly. “We have to face discrimination based on gender, caste, community and marks, which is wrong,” she said.
Himachal cops to penalise VVIP cars too
After protests by the lawyers, the Himachal Pradesh Police have challenged vehicles belonging to several VVIPs, including state PWD Minister Vikramaditya Singh and his mother Pratibha Singh, who is a former Congress state president, as her car was stopped by the protesting lawyers on the sealed road in Shimla. Cars of senior IAS and police officials were also challaned. The lawyers were upset over being barred from using the sealed road without a valid permit. They were stopping all the vehicles on the road and were checking whether they possessed permits. If the vehicle did not have a valid permit, they forced the police to issue a challan.
Harpreet Bajwa
Our correspondent in Chandigarh
hsbajwa73@gmail.com