Gurdaspur residents’ distress calls — Send curd, noodles

Ravi Dhaliwal
Tribune News Service
Gurdaspur, March 28

Even as officials are fighting a grim battle against Covid, Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Ishfaq is having a tough time tackling weird calls, with residents waking him up at odd hours to fulfil their demands, a majority of which are “illogical and irrational”.

Minister gets call in dead of night

Cabinet Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa was also a receiver of one such call and that too in the dead of the night from a resident of Dera Baba Nanak, the Assembly seat he represents. “Mantri ji, sade ghar noodles khatam hogaye ne. Kuch kar deyo please” (minister sahib, there are no noodles in our house. Please do something.)

At 4.15 am today, Ishfaq, who slept well past midnight after presiding over a high-level meeting on how to put an end to rumour-mongering, was woken up by a call on his mobile by a woman who demanded that curd be sent to her house immediately “as her husband had a hangover”.

“DC sahib, kal rat mere gharwale ne daru zyada pi lee te dahi mere ghar bhej do” (Sir, last evening my husband overdrank, so please send curd to my place),” she said.

Fifteen minutes later, the DC received a video of a man unabashedly crying and claiming that despite repeated reminders to grocery store owners, he was not supplied ration. The DC got in touch with the police and food supplies officials, who in turn visited the house of the “aggrieved man”.

When the officials reached the man’s house, they were taken aback to see a room fully stacked with a dozen large boxes of ration items. They then reported the matter to the DC, who rang up the man to know the truth. The reply he got was, “DC sahib, eh ration tan main apne munde de viah layee rakhiya hai. Sade pandit ji ne keha hai ki viah to pehlan isnu hath nahi lagana” (this ration is for my son’s wedding. Our priest has asked us not to touch it before the wedding day).”

Officials from the Food and Civil Supplies Department claimed that every day, a number of people called them up saying “Sade ghar adhrak khatam hogya” (we do not have ginger in our house), “Bache Maggi mangde ne” (children are asking for Maggi)).

Cabinet Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa was also a receiver of one such call and that too in the dead of the night from a resident of Dera Baba Nanak, the Assembly seat he represents. “Mantri ji, sade ghar noodles khatam hogaye ne. Kuch kar deyo please” (minister sahib, there are no noodles in our house. Please do something).

Raman Bahl, chairman of the Punjab State Subordinate Services Selection Board, distributed 300 ration kits. Real estate dealer Manjit Singh Dala has sent a message on social media, asking residents to contact him if they needed anything.

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