Punjab Diary: Boycott call fizzles out

Pathankot: Despite call for boycott by residents and a powerful section of his own party, MP Sunny Deol’s latest film “Gadar 2” has been a hit in his constituency. In Pathankot itself, where the MP maintains an office, the film was released in two theatres and at both places it is running successfully. This clearly shows that as far as the boycott call was concerned, residents took refuge in that iconic line from the 1939 classic film “Gone with the Wind”: Frankly, dear, I do not give a damn! Deol’s detractors are clearly gasping for breath!

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Politician vs bureaucrats

Batala: The debate on relocation of the bus stand in Batala to the city’s outskirts has been going on for the last two decades. The political class is unwilling to play ball as the move means a direct loss of nearly 5,000 votes. Bureaucrats insist the shifting is necessary because of the massive traffic jams it creates. The entire city, barring owners of 500-odd shops located near the bus stand, is backing the bureaucrats. However, the latest is that a ruling party politician has managed to tilt the scales in the favour of not shifting the bus stand.

SOS to Civil Surgeon

Gurdaspur: Raman Bahl, chairman, Punjab Health Systems Corporation, was flooded with complaints about a large number of residents suffering from conjunctivitis, viral fever and joint pain. He hit upon a novel idea. He sent an SOS to the Civil Surgeon asking him to identify the worst-affected areas and hold free medical camps. There was discernible relief on the faces of the residents as, after a long time, they saw hordes of doctors doing duty in the city’s innumerable narrow alleys. For them, with half the town being down with viral fever, every day may not be good but there is something good in every day.

Turning heat on peddlers

Patiala: The police have asked all DSPs and SHOs to visit villages and localities to give inputs about drug abuse. The idea is to get public support and freeze properties of peddlers. The new methodology has started showing results with SP, DSP and SHOs visiting the field and directly interacting with elders and youngsters running sports clubs in villages. SSP Varun Sharma said majority of the villages had banned entry of outsiders and were providing information related to drug nexus directly to senior officers. “We have already frozen properties worth Rs 5.67 crore. We have prepared 18 proposals so far and sent the list to the authorities concerned in this regard,” said Sharma. “The whole idea is to promote sports clubs in creating awareness against drugs and also deal strictly with drug smugglers,” he said.

Contributed by Ravi Dhaliwal and Aman Sood