Bad roads in ‘not-so-smart city’

Amidst hullabaloo of the ‘smart city project’ for Ludhiana, even the existing urban infrastructure is not being properly maintained. About city roads, the less said the better. Potholes dot almost all main roads. One rarely comes across a properly carpeted road in commercial hubs or residential areas. Nearly, all major roads lie in a state of neglect. Even patch work has not been done on many main and feeder roads. There have been numerous complaints related to the newly carpeted roads not retaining their top coat for too long. It seems that the quality of workmanship does not seem to be among the priorities of the Municipal Corporation (MC). There is no doubt that scarce financial resources of the civic body are being squandered away with the active connivance of some officials and contractors while the top brass of the MC either deliberately, or otherwise, prefers to look the other way.

Movie buffs already

Ludhiana seems to the favourite destination of Bollywood. From Aamir Khan to Salman Khan and now, Shabana Azmi all are smitten by the city’s warmth during their shooting days in the city. Residents, who are already movie buffs, get one more reason to watch movies to catch a glimpse of the city on the silver screen. Most recent were ‘Sultan’, ‘Dangal’ and now untitled movie of Akshay Kumar, which gives enough reason to the city people to hit the multiplexes.

No match for Sidhu

The Minister for Local Bodies, Navjot Singh Sidhu, today clean bowled all with his excellent oratory skills. He answered queries of mediapersons in English, Punjabi, Hindi and Urdu and never missed to put ‘Shayari’ in all the topics. Though other seasoned politicians, including MP Ravneet Bittu, MLA Bharat Bhushan Ashu, Gurdev Lapran, Sanjay Talwar and others, all were present during the press meet, held here at Circuit House, none uttered a word in his presence. And his flawless speech convinced one and all present. While presenting his witty side Sidhu said, “We will convert the disasters (mistakes committed by previous SAD-BJP government) into triumph.”

Shabana puts up with classy women

Actress Shabana Azmi, known for being a ‘Woman of substance’, showed her class during an interaction with city women. Shabana answered every question from the audience on ‘Women empowerment’, the issue she had spoken about minutes earlier, with articulate aplomb.

But, city women were no less. They also showed their own ‘class’ as they almost pounced upon the veteran actress after the event got over to grab their moment of glory on the Facebook. They ploughed their way to Shabana to get those selfies with her, no matter what. Visibly taken aback at the overwhelming ‘funneling of feminity’ on her, Shabana even tried to muster up some smile in the beginning, but the determined women wouldn’t let up. Unfettered, women would follow her up until she was made to sit securely behind window pane of the silent car. Out of anguished daze, she rather kept looking straight ahead as the car moved away. But, to their heart’s content, women were all smiles, relishing and sharing their selfies with evergreen queen Shabana Azmi.

Contributed by: Kuldip Bhatia, Manav Mander , Shivani Bhakoo, Gurvinder Singh