Babus fly high

Besides commoners, the helicopter ride launched at the Rose Festival also caught the fancy of senior officers of the UT Administration. Soon after the launch of the service, some officers, along with their families, were seen enjoying the ride in the helicopter. In a bid to avoid any controversy, some officers even flashed their tickets before mediapersons, present on the occasion. Some officers confided that it was their first-ever chopper ride.

Former Mayor’s love

In the recent UT MC special meeting on Budget, former Mayor Subhash Chawla came to media gallery and even sat with journalists to watch the House proceedings. Minutes later, an MC official came and said somebody had objected Chawla sitting in the media gallery and requested Chawla to sit in the visitors’ gallery. Finally, Chawla shifted to the visitors’ gallery and watched the House proceedings.

Woman SHO’s test

City’s first woman SHO Poonam Dilawari is handling the second sensational murder case involving VIP brats, who have proved a hard nut to crack. Earlier, after a team led by Dilawari in the murder case of national shooter and advocate Sukhmanpreet Singh ‘Sippy’ failed to make any headway, the case was handed over to the CBI. That case involved a daughter of a serving judge. At that time, Dilawari was the SHO of Sector 26 police station under which Sippy was shot dead. In the present brutal murder case of Himachal Pradesh CM’s nephew Akansh Sen, who was run over by a BMW car, the police team, led by Dilawari, has till date failed to trace either the killer car or the main accused Balraj Singh Randhawa. It is despite their constant efforts and apparent pressure to solve the case.

Free bird!

During a recent discussion on Brexit Challenges and Opportunities for India at the Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development, Chandigarh, one of the key speakers Bhaswati Mukherjee, former India Ambassador to Netherlands, expressed her delight at being a part of such a prestigious panel. “An important advantage of being here post superannuation is that I need not adhere to the party line anymore and am free to share my views,” Mukherjee said, evoking hearty laughter from the gathering.

Benevolent enough!

During the 3-day Rose Festival, a city-based couple approached the stall of the Regional Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation, PGI, at Leisure Valley, Sector 10. After pledging their organs at the stall, the couple went ahead to explain to their seven-year-old son the concept of organ donation. After giving his parents a patient hearing, the child rushed to the PGI staff and requested them to arrange through organ donation, a  set of teeth for his grandfather who had been facing difficulty in chewing his food properly. The request left PGI staff in splits.

Rat menace

While it has earlier been reported that rat menace is causing nightmares at the women police station in Mansa Devi Complex, mid-day meal kitchens in Panchkula government schools are a casualty as well. Be it the government middle school in Sector 4 or the primary one in Budhanpur village, schools are facing a tough time saving their food grains from rats. While the Sector 4 school uses large steel containers to protect grains, the Budhanpur school has made high shelves to keep their grain out of reach of rats.

(Contributed by Ramkrishan Upadhyay, Rajinder Nagarkoti, Sandeep Rana, Charu Chhibber & Ishrat Banwait)