JNNURM Buses
After a long time it was good to see people’s faces lighting up at the sight of a JNNURM bus. But cab drivers are not a happy lot. Maybe this is one good way of taking cabs off the road, felt one passenger who said she will not shed a tear at the demise of cabs.
After all they had been taking passengers for a ride for nearly two decades. The new buses are economical, spacious and most importantly travellers are not packed like sandwiches.
What the passengers want at this point are the electronic neon lights telling passengers which direction the buses are headed. Such electronic plates are there in JNNURM buses in all big cities to guide passengers.
Even as jubilant passengers welcomed this move of the state government, they now say that the buses must have a road map as to which routes they will cover; what are the embarkation and disembarkation points and also the fare structure.
BSNL does it again
Customer complaints do not seem to matter to the BSNL. This humungous public sector undertaking that is carrying more manpower than it requires seem unable to rectify faults on mobile phone connectivity.
Many consumers have complained that they are victims of dropped calls and have to dial the same person several times over to complete a conversation.
Each time they dial a number, they see the words “Error in connection.”
A young man who was probably trying to contact his paramour was so frustrated that he flung his mobile phone on the ground after mumbling a few swear words. This reporter asked him who the service provider was. He replied, “Who else but the …….
BSNL?”
CCTV in schools?
Some big schools in the town have demanded installation of CCTVs in school corridors to keep a check on students outside their classrooms.
Drawing an example from a similar move taken by a few central schools in Bhubaneswar, these city based schools also feel they should install CCTVs to check students who have the propensity to bully others during lunch hours and even when they are attending to nature’s call.
But whether CCTVs can check perverse behaviour is another thing. Many cases of indecent behaviour have been reported by students of some leading schools who have been bullied by their seniors.
Corruption a DNA problem?
A senior bureaucrat feels that corruption is linked to a person’s genes. He quoted a scientist who says that not every man can be a husband. “Husbanding is a tall order and some men continue to be illiterates in this activity,” he said.
Similarly some people are so prone to corruption that their DNA seems to be so programmed that the still small voice is permanently drugged so it is unable to show them the right way the bureaucrat said.
It seems like a fitting analysis of mankind’s most persistent problem. Otherwise why would someone who has blatantly indulged in corruption still preach from the pulpits without batting an eyelid, the babu enquired.
