Chandigarh confidential

A return gift

Punjab Director General of Police S S Saini gave a lavish dinner to outgoing director of Intelligence Bureau (IB), Nischal Sandhu, at the gazetted officers' mess of PAP 82 battalion in Chandigarh. All senior state police officers and local IB officials were present. Sandhu had praised the DGP in the past for his effective working and some of the officers said perhaps this was a return gift. The dinner went off till late and then early next day, Sandhu and Saini were in Jalandhar for the national police games. At both the places, Sandhu's visit was kept under wraps by the police.

Kabaddi makes babus uneasy

The third edition of World Cup Kabaddi, which was formally inaugurated in Bathinda on Saturday, has made state government officials uneasy. They complain that the annual event was eating out almost a fortnight every year. They say it is not only diverting the time and energy of officials from development and public-related works since the over a dozen district administrations are working round-the-clock for the event given the personal interest of the deputy chief minister. They suggest that it would be a better idea to hold it like Olympics, Asian Games or the cricket world cup after every four year, or at least after a gap of two years. This will also arrest the interest in kabaddi from waning, they add. Is anyone listening?

Cashing in on rules

Customs officials at Attari are having a tough time dealing with non-Indian nationals crossing over to India from Pakistan with Indian currency. On Friday, the staff had to do quite an exercise to impose a penalty on some Pakistani women, who had come to India for shopping and were carrying Indian currency. Though the women opposed penalty, but the officials followed the rule book and fined them. A day before, an elderly NRI, who had a US passport, too had locked horns with Customs officials after he was asked to pay a fine for carrying Indian currency while returning from Pakistan, where he reportedly went to participate in the birth anniversary celebrations of Guru Nanak Dev in Nankana Sahib.

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