(Un)welcome entry
The VIP entrance to the Punjab Secretariat just got a bit snazzier. Italian flooring, an impressive artificial ceiling and refurbished wooden cabins of security personnel greet the visitors. We don’t understand much utility of this expenditure, but will surely hope the entry of non-VIPs is made a bit less onerous. After parking the vehicle a good half a kilometre away, the enervated visitor is accosted by the over-officious staff who would insist on having an official slip to get you an entry. While such security measures were understandable in the days of terrorism, today, they appear superficial. A normal frisking and checking of the visitor’s belongings should suffice. Why make him go through a series of checks and then still insist on an official slip? Apart from causing harassment to the common man, they don’t achieve much purpose. Even the Pentagon wouldn’t have such elaborate and intimidating security.

Right to withhold information
Our officialdom has a remarkable ability to obfuscate issues. Even the noble RTI can fail in front of their doggedness to hide things. Recently, an RTI request was filed by this newspaper to get information pertaining to a resort in Haryana. About 45 days after the RTI was filed, the Information Officer concerned replied that in view of the elections, the department would require time to reply. After another 45 days, we finally got a reply. It was a terse one liner, “The information sought pertains to a private firm, hence outside the the purview of the RTI Act.”